Nissan is taking its electric vehicle to the next level, pioneering a new system that will enable companies to regulate their electricity bills by tapping into the electric vehicles their employees are driving to work.
The “Vehicle-To-Building” technology allows up to six Nissan Leafs to be connected to an office building’s power distribution board, the Daily Fusion reported. At peak hours, when energy demand is at its highest and electricity is most expensive, the building draws power from the cars. When demand slows and electricity is cheaper, it flows the other way. No matter how much electricity they provide, the system ensures the Nissan Leafs are fully charged by the end of the day for their owners to drive home.
The U.S. military has a pilot program in place that tries out this kind of system, known as vehicle-to-grid, on several domestic bases using its growing fleet of electric vehicles. It earned more than enough revenue to cover the cost of leases for electric vehicles, while providing reliability and secure power backup.
Nissan has conducted a successful field test of the Vehicle-To-Building system and has been using it at the company’s Advanced Technology Center in Atsugi City, Japan since July. According to the Daily Fusion, “the facility benefited from a reduction of 25.6 kW during peak summer periods by controlling the charging time of the electric cars, with no impact on the workers’ daily commute.”
And the results have been significant. The facility achieved a “2.5 percent reduction of electrical power use during peak hours, a saving of nearly 500,000 Yen (approx. $4,900) per year in electrical power cost (based on current Tokyo Electric Power Company’s rates).”
Nissan’s latest endeavor is an offshoot of its “Leaf-To-Home” system...
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/12/03/3010981/electric-vehicle-powers-buildings/
The Nissan Building to Grid research is an offshoot of the concept Vehicle to Grid (V2G), which was first conceptualized around 2000.
Electric cars may hold solution for power storage
In a Delaware pilot project, electricity is stored in and retrieved from the batteries of idle vehicles. Car owners would be paid.
By Evan Halper
December 29, 2013, 5:00 a.m.
NEWARK, Del. ...
The pilot project here at the University of Delaware has had enough success to set off a frenzy of activity in the auto and electricity industries, particularly in California, where Gov. Jerry Brown's transportation plan this year promoted "vehicle-to-grid" technology.
...."This is a fascinating option," said Robert Weisenmiller, chair of the California Energy Commission. "The technology works. You can do this. The question is … what do we need to do to make it happen?"
....The idea is that utilities would pay vehicle owners to store electricity in the batteries of electric vehicles when the power grid has a surplus and drain electricity back out of them when demand rises.
The plan takes advantage of a key fact about cars: They spend most of their time parked. The technology makes idle vehicles a source of storage for utilities and cash for car owners.
The "Cash Back Car" is how the concept is described by Jon Wellinghoff, the recently retired chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. "It provides another incentive for people to buy electric cars," he said....
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-electric-cars-20131229,0,5640652.story#ixzz2pTKkOxoh
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