At the beginning of June I attended the “Utrecht Energized” extravaganza at the Jaarbeurs Convention Centre in the heart of Utrecht in the Netherlands. According to Renault’s press release about the event:
Renault Group, MyWheels and We Drive Solar, together with the Municipality of Utrecht, announce the go-live of Europe’s first large‑scale Vehicle‑to‑Grid (V2G) car‑sharing service: Utrecht energized. The initiative supports a more sustainable, efficient energy system in a city where 35 % of rooftops are already fitted with solar panels. Thanks to the V2G technology, electric vehicles can store energy and feed it back to the local grid during peak periods, so renewable power remains available around the clock. By combining a shared‑mobility service with advanced technology, the project keeps the local grid in balance while accelerating the transition to sustainable urban transport.
Here’s Renault Nederland’s brief promotional video:
More about all that in due course, but first of all please note these paragraphs from the press release:
I had high hopes for what I dubbed the “South West Powerhouse” back in 2015, when I attended the launch of Molly Scott Cato’s “The Power to Transform the South West” report in Glastonbury. Here’s Molly, the then Green Party MEP for South West England, describing that vision from the podium:
After the presentations were over I bumped into a researcher from the University of Exeter, who didn’t look very well. I enquired after his health, and he explained that it wasn’t a physical problem. It had just been announced that the then Conservative / Lib Dem coalition Government had published its so called “Productivity Plan“, which claimed to be:
Creating a more prosperous nation.
The plan included the following weasel words:
The government does not intend to proceed with the zero carbon Allowable Solutions carbon offsetting scheme, or the proposed 2016 increase in on-site energy efficiency standards.
An unfortunate side effect of the cunning Conservative plan was that the vehicle-to-grid pilot project at South West Exeter that I’d just been discussing with Molly was instantly consigned to the recycle bin of history. Hence I wrote the first of several subsequent “open letters” to Mel Stride, recent candidate for leadership of the Conservative Party and my then Member of Parliament:
Much more recently I found myself on stage at the Everything Electric North event in Harrogate, where I exhorted to audience to “get out and vote!”, a message echoed by presenter Robert Llewellyn:
I was fortunate enough to find myself on stage for two different panel sessions at the Everything Electric NORTH show in Harrogate last weekend. We recorded those two sessions in full for posterity, but there were plenty of other interesting topics apart from V2x. Some extracts from those can also be found below.
My first panel on Saturday was on the topic of “Vehicle to Everything? What’s the true potential?”, held in the EEN “Giga Theatre”. The tagline for the session was “We believe that V2X could be the biggest benefit of all in a world with battery electric vehicles, but how do we go ‘bidirectional’?”:
As you can see from the video below, I found myself sat next to Robert Llewellyn of Fully Charged fame as a last minute replacement for host Dan Caesar:
Mark Potter from 3ti explained the full suite of V2x three letter acronyms (TLAs for short).
In a press release yesterday Ford announced that the:
F-150 Lightning with available Ford Intelligent Backup Power can provide power and security during an electrical outage – the first electric truck in the U.S. to offer this capability; in the future, new features will offer additional ways to manage energy use and potentially save on energy costs.
Truck owners are used to tapping a variety of features – torque, towing capability and more – to get things done. Now, with the all-electric F-150® Lightning™ pickup, Ford is the first in the U.S. to offer the ability for customers to power their homes with an electric truck when the grid goes dark, providing innovative new capabilities that enhance the energy independence of its customers.
Ford and F-Series, America’s best-selling trucks for 45 years*, are partnering with Sunrun, the nation’s leading solar company, to enhance home energy management, leveraging the substantial onboard battery capability of the all-electric F-150 Lightning. Americans experienced the most power interruptions on record in 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration; and with F-150 Lightning, homeowners can use their truck to maintain their routines during brief or extended outages.
The press release was accompanied by this video:
https://youtu.be/oc3sQ2UcTlg
As the narrator puts it:
What if the next time the power went out, your pickup truck could electrify your home
A very good question! Which we here at V2G UK have been pondering for many a year.
Note that the narrator also points out that:
You’ll need a Ford Charge Station Pro, which comes with an F-150 Lightning Extended Range truck, and an available home integration system….
Siemens Smart Infrastructure announced it has worked with Ford on the Ford Charge Station Pro, a custom electric vehicle (EV) charger for the Ford F-150 Lightning. This innovative charger is the first bidirectional-ready EV solution set for release at retail customer scale to receive certification under the newly expanded Underwriters Laboratories (UL) 9741, an important industry-wide benchmark that ensures products meet safety standards. The new charge station also features a peak power of 19.2kW, achieving the maximum power rating currently available for a Level 2 charge station.
The Ford Charge Station Pro is needed to enable Ford Intelligent Backup Power, a system that allows the Ford-150 Lightning to become an interactive part of the home and be used as a power generation source during outages, the first electric truck to do so. In the future, additional features will be made available with firmware updates to the charger that will help customers interact even further with the grid.
“Together with Ford, Siemens is not only helping accelerate electric vehicle adoption in the residential space but is also empowering drivers to take more ownership of their energy future,” said John DeBoer, head of Siemens eMobility in North America. “The technology behind this charger is helping make charging at home more sustainable, more reliable, and more accessible. We’re incredibly proud to put our experience to work to help usher in a new era for electric vehicles and grid resiliency.”
Ford Charge Station Pro comes with the F-150 Lightning with extended-range battery. If your F-150 Lightning has a standard-range battery, it is available for purchase:
Price: $1,310.00 (plus shipping and installation)
As far as I can see there are no details available on the “home integration system” mentioned above.
P.S. It has come to our attention that at least one purveyor of EV “news” is peddling inaccurate information. Hence:
“On the ordering page of Ford’s website they have an inaccurate picture.”
Earlier this year I was on a couple of panel sessions on the topic of V2x technology at the Everything Electric NORTH event in Harrogate. Whilst there I took a look at the F-150 Lightning on show in the exhibition hall. Until now I have remained blissfully unaware that Everything Electric’s Robert Llewellyn recorded this exceedingly interesting interview with Ford CEO Jim Farley at the end of the previous year’s Fully Charged LIVE show in Harrogate:
Note in particular the part at 15:20 where Jim says:
The F-150, the main reason why people are buying the F-150, more than half the customers are new to a full size truck, is because it can power their house for 3 days. We didn’t know that a mobile battery on a work site was going to be that evocative as a reason to buy a vehicle. We thought it was going to be 0-60 4 seconds. We were wrong. So the exportable power turns out to be the main reason people are excited about the Lightning.
