Digital Utility Group
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New Participants in EV Resource Aggregation – Changing the Landscape of Energy Supply Participants
This item is part of the 2023 Predictions and Anticipated Trends for the Power Industry - January/February, click here for more
With the convergence of efforts and initiatives such as the Bi-lateral Infrastructure Las (BIL), the Inflation Reduction Act, the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Plan and the goals that have been set by major automobile manufacturers like GM and Ford to convert their Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) to full electric, an entirely new set of energy participants are emerging to leverage these assets as key grid reinforcement services.
Most notably GM, with newly launched business unit GM Energy is among the first to recognize the capability of these battery energy storage units to meet the needs of consumers and the energy utility industry. Building on the goal of deepening the customer experience of owning and operating an electric vehicle is key to their strategy. GM has partnered with SunPower to install the home charging infrastructure as well as solar systems and have initiated pilot programs with Pacific Gas and Electric and Con Edison to demonstrate the efficacy of bi-directional charging systems that will optimize vehicle charging, enable customers to use their vehicle as a back-up resource in the event of a power failure and to be a grid supporting service as needed. Not to be outdone, Ford has partnered with Sunrun to provide similar arrangements leveraging their much anticipated F-150 Lightning fully electric pickup truck.
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In January of 2023, The Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org) launched the Virtual Power Plant Partnership (VP3) with founding partners GM, Ford, Google Nest (www.nest.com), OhmConnect (www.ohmconnect.com), Olivine (www.olivineinc.com), SPAN (www.span.io) , SunPower (www.sunpower.com) , Sunrun (www.sunrun.com) , SwitchDin (www.switchDin.com) and Virtual Peaker (www.virtual-peaker.com).
The objective of this group is to “catalyze the industry and transform policy to support scaling of VPPs in ways that help advance affordable, reliable electric sector decarbonization by overcoming barriers to VPP growth.[1]” The vision will be realized by harnessing the potential the mass use of programmable communicating thermostats (PTC), smart circuit breaker panels, solar and battery storage systems, EVs and Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) and enabling platforms and applications.
The underlying platforms that will enable this transactional relation among all actors is still in flux, with protocols, like the newly released Open Charging Point Protocol OCPP V2.0.1 that unlocks Vehicle to Charging Operator standards and ISO/IEC 15118 Plug and Charge that extends the capability to permit Vehicle to Grid (V2G); however, these standards are specifically focused on the EV ecosystem.
IEEE 2030.5 Smart Energy Profile (SEP) on the other hand, was developed to support Internet-based communications for very large numbers of devices, and designed with a rich data model to fully represent all of DER parameters. It leverages a full robust suite of DER data models based on a Common Information Model (CIM) found in IEC 61850, and supports the technical, performance and contractual parameters of DERs throughout their lifecycle.
Kitu Systems (www.kitu.io) has deployed their Grid Action Platform ™ based on extensive use of IEEE 2030.5, a well-established and widely adopted DER industry standard. This standard provides functions in the transport and Internet layers to enable utility management of the end user energy environment, including demand response, load control, time of day pricing, management of distributed generation, electric vehicles, an expanded suite of Smart Energy Profiles (SEP) and a rich suite of grid services including Volt/Var control and frequency response.
With the introduction of “Matter[2]” a smart home devices communication standard, this will establish a foundation that offers a secure, reliable, and seamless platform for a wide variety of Internet of Things (ioT). Matter enables communication across a wide variety of smart home devices, mobile app, and cloud services, and defines a specific set of IP-based networking technologies for device certification. With leading technology firms like Apple, Google, LG, Samsung, Comcast, Silicon Labs and Texas Instrument as core members of this initiative, Matter, orchestrated by Connectivity Standards Alliance (www.CSA-IOT.org), is poised to become a significant enabler for the interconnected fabric that will unlock greater harmonization of the way we live, drive and interact with energy.
With the interest shown by solar PV Players, automobile goliaths, infrastructure and transactional behemoths and commercial product notables, it is likely that a set of significant player or players will evolve in the EV resource aggregation arena. This will come to fruition through strategic partnerships, opportunistic collaborative deployments initially targeted in high EV concentration markets. Owners and operators will surface with the vision of national or global dominance, while the services provided by utilities, ISO’s and other required enablers may be limited to their service territories. While this commercial race for DER aggregation seeks to gain consumer acceptance, confidence and convenience, the underlying need for technical interoperability, based on standards that supports the current and future breadth of DER capabilities use cases and actors must not be minimized.
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2023 Predictions and Anticipated Trends for the Power Industry - January/February
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