Harnessing the Power of Electric Vehicles

Besides producing no tailpipe emissions, EVs have another benefit: their batteries can act as electricity storage. Vehicle-grid integration (VGI) is the practice of intentionally integrating EVs with the electricity grid through managing the time, rate, or location of charging (V1G) and, in some instances, energy in the battery could be sent to the grid, a process known as V2G.

To better understand the extent to which VGI of light-duty EVs could aid the state’s transition to clean electricity, the Union of Concerned Scientists partnered with Evolved Energy Research to conduct an analysis of different levels of hourly managed V1G and V2G. This analysis shows that VGI enables electricity system savings, ranging from $1.8 billion (1 percent of system costs) to $11.7 billion (5 percent of system costs) per year in 2045. It also found that V2G creates significant incremental benefits over V1G alone.