Vehicle-to-Grid Power: Battery, Hybrid, and Fuel Cell Vehicles as Resources for Distributed Electric Power in California

Executive Summary Electric-drive vehicles can become an important resource for the California electric utility system, with consequent air pollution, system reliability, and economic benefits. We refer to electric power resources from vehicles as "Vehicle to Grid" power (V2G). The economic value of some forms of V2G appear high, more than enough to offset the initially higher costs of electric-drive vehicles, thus having the potential to accelerate their introduction. To realize this potential, some coordination of vehicle and infrastructure planning will be needed. This study calculates three parameters of electric drive vehicles (EDVs) which are important for their use by the electric system: resource size, availability, and economic potential. Economic potential was calculated for three power markets: peak power, spinning reserves, and regulation services. Vehicles were not found to be competitive for baseload power. The analysis uses California electricity market prices for three years—1998, 1999, and 2000—as well as historical electric utility experience. This three-year comparison insures that recent disruptions, and historically atypical prices, in the 2000 California electricity market do not bias the results. In addition to electricity markets, "customer side of the meter" strategies are analyzed, in which vehicle power offsets time-of-use charges, demand charges, and interruptible rates. These multiple