With decreasing lithium battery prices electric vehicles are on the brink of meeting the price parity with internal combustion engine cars. Various calculations forecast that it will happen within the next 3-4 years and with it, even more electric wheels will start rolling on the roads we drive.
As EV‘s are still considered as one of the means of transportation, little is known about the possibilities beyond that. The fact that EVs contain large batteries for long drive distances and relatively low EV driving percent means that most of the time EV are idle. Since the grid experiences various disbalances from always changing consumption patterns, due to renewable energy and EV integration, these idle batteries pose an opportunity to balance those fluctuations and maintain the stability in the grid. For this reason, a so-called vehicle-to-grid (V2G) projects started to emerge around the world.

The idea is intuitive – while your EV is connected to the charging station at your home, it can discharge power when the grid “asks” or electricity is more expensive . Everything happens with a monetary benefit for the EV owner of course. In this way, Electric vehicles might keep on working and providing value even when they are not on the road. Grid system operators will be able to avoid the necessity to rely on big scale storage alone and tap into EV owner batteries whenever they are available, saving significant costs of ownership of big scale storage and other means of centralized balancing and directing this stream of revenue to EV owner pockets.

You can see the progress and results of these V2G projects by following this link: https://www.v2g-hub.com/. Even though the necessary technology for discharge and arrangement with the energy retailer is required, given the potential of this model Ignitis Group Innovation HUB is looking forward to take part in V2G projects in Lithuania and beyond. Therefore if you are an equipment, software vendor or an enthusiast, we welcome you to apply to one of our four ways of partnership here.

Want to discuss further? Contact me, Vincentas.