Late last year, Pacific Gas and Electric shut off power to portions of 34 of California’s 58 counties, affecting almost 800,000 homes and businesses. These preventative power shut-offs were in response to threats caused by climate change, fierce winds, and dry conditions that increased the risk of deadly wildfires, and they highlighted just how vulnerable the electricity grid and those who depended on it for power were. Plenty of homes and businesses have reduced their risk by using solar and stationary battery storage systems in concert with grid electricity, but EV batteries provide an even more exciting solution to power outages.
The roads of California are home to hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles, each of them being run by powerful battery packs. And unlike traditional stationary battery systems, EV battery packs are much larger and can carry a lot more juice. Most of the EV battery packs on the market have a range of 40 to 65-kilowatt hours. The batteries running Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) vehicles are even larger, with the Model S or Model X going up to 100 kilowatt-hours. Paired with a power control system, your EV could be running your home next time there’s a power outage!
Nissan, for instance, says that all the electric vehicles on the road that it has manufactured contain a combined total of more than 10 gigawatt-hours of storage potential. It estimates when connected to a vehicle-to-home system, it’s all-electric Leaf can power an average home in Japan for two to four days depending on whether it is the standard (40 kilowatt-hour) or the extended range e+ (62 kilowatt-hours) next-generation Leaf.
In fact, Japan has had great success with EV battery packs, with electric vehicles being deployed to restore power to critical facilities in areas struck by a natural disaster for nearly a decade. Back in March 2011, Nissan sent 66 first-generation Leafs to the northeastern coast of Japan after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami struck, and the company later partnered with local governments and the private sector to provide Leafs to restore power in times of emergency in Japan.
Closer to home, Montreal-based startup OSSIACO plans to introduce its vehicle-to-home platform, dcbel, in California by the end of this year. It will comprise of a bidirectional charger with a built-in solar inverter which will be compatible with any EV with a CHAdeMO DC fast-charging port. No software will be needed to operate the system. “Initially, what it’s going to offer is really an unparalleled level of resilience for homeowners and small businesses to be able to keep their homes powered through grid outages,” says Ossiaco representative John Sarter.
If you were looking for one more reason to get yourself an EV, then using it to keep your house lights on when the utility grid is down may be all the reason you need!
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