Vehicle-to-home charging technology launched for mass market

Six homes in Menifee, California, are equipped with the ability to harness energy from electric vehicles to power household loads in both grid-connected and isolated (off-grid) situations. This will be the first demonstration of mass-market vehicle-to-home technology with two dedicated commercial products: a two-way charger and a mass-market V2H-enabled SUV.

This demonstration is the result of a four-year collaboration between Kia America, Hyundai America Technical Center, Hyundai Motor Group, and the University of California, Irvine’s Advanced Power and Energy Program. Kia provided the EV6 with prototype V2H software, and Wallbox provided the prototype two-way charger. As part of the APEP-led U.S. Department of Energy Connected Microgrid project in Menifee, APEP researchers conducted control testing at the APEP Housing Laboratory, followed by field testing with a V2H-capable Kia EV9 prototype in a model home.

APEP’s findings were published this month in the Journal of Energy Conversion and Management. In May, a commercial Wallbox Quasar 2 two-way charger was installed at the APEP Housing Research Institute and commissioned with a commercial Kia EV9. In August, Quasar 2 units were deployed in six Menifee homes, each paired with a Kia EV9, and evaluated for both performance and user experience in a real home environment for two years.

“This effort demonstrates the importance of collaboration between academia and industry,” said Scott Samuelsen, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Irvine, project director and founding director of APEP. “Actual deployment of bidirectional charging is essential to gathering data and insights into the technical and customer adaptations needed to scale V2H deployment across the grid.”

One of the main benefits of V2H is that it can potentially reduce electricity costs for homeowners by using stored energy during times when rates are highest (for example, during peak demand from 4 to 8 p.m.). The second benefit is that you can recover renewable energy from solar panels on your roof that is stored during the day, transmit that energy to the grid, and use the recovered energy to power your household loads at other times. In both cases, V2H reduces the strain on the grid.

Another benefit of V2H is that it can keep your home powered for several days during grid outages, given that vehicle batteries have up to 10 times the energy density of typical household batteries.

V2H also offers environmental benefits by reducing air pollutant emissions from power plants that service the power grid and providing a cleaner alternative to purchasing gasoline-powered combustion backup home generators.