Got an electric car? The state wants you. The California Independent System Operator Corporation, manager of the power grid in the Golden State, hopes to integrate electric vehicles into the power grid.
It hopes to assess how consumer use of electric vehicles could benefit electric reliability and to determine policies and technologies necessary for a more reliable, sustainable electric grid.
“Vehicle electrification promises to not only help fight climate change, it presents an opportunity to provide grid services that complement other energy sources to meet the reliability needs of the grid,” says CalISO President and CEO Steve Berberich.
Ideally, coordinating EV charging with grid conditions and providing a mechanism for aggregation of EVs to “respond to the ISO’s signals” will maximize the benefits to be gained from EV use, CalISO says. Just what responding to its signals may mean for the average driver is not clear.
But one thing it hopes to encourage is charging of electric vehicles during non-peak periods.