Electric vehicles may soon do more than just get you from A to B—they could also help stabilize the power grid. A coalition of companies including Eversource, National Grid, EnergyHub, Sunrun, and the Mobility House has launched an early pilot test of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology in Massachusetts, according to Matt Simon of WIRED. The program allows utility customers with compatible EVs and bidirectional chargers to sell energy back to the grid during times of high demand, such as heat waves, creating a new revenue stream for participants.
How Vehicle-to-Grid Works
V2G technology enables an EV to not only charge from the grid but also discharge power back into it. In this pilot, participants enroll in the existing ConnectedSolutions program, which already allows homes to run on residential batteries. When a “demand response” event is called—typically during peak demand hours on hot summer days—the EV battery can discharge to help the grid keep up, and the driver is compensated. “It’s really kind of a small number of hours per year that you’re discharging the battery,” said Russell Vare, vice president of vehicle-grid integration at the Mobility House North America, a provider of charging infrastructure. “It’s not necessarily like a daily discharge. It’s just during those peak times the events are called.”
Grid Challenges and the Promise of V2G
Utilities are facing escalating pressures: electricity demand is growing from power-hungry data centers, the switch to EVs, and the adoption of heat pumps. At the same time, they are retiring fossil-fuel plants for renewables like wind and solar, which are intermittent. Current solutions include building battery storage facilities and expanding transmission lines, all of which are costly. Chip Silverman, director of grid services at Sunrun, a solar and battery company, explained: “It’s great to have Massachusetts stepping into the lead here and doing this because these learnings are what’s going to allow this technology to scale.” Russell Vare added that V2G represents “the cheapest cost of flexible energy storage that will be available for the grid.”
The Massachusetts Pilot
Today’s launch by the coalition marks an early real-world test. The program is designed to aggregate hundreds, then thousands, and eventually millions of EVs to provide reliable backup power. Lessons learned will guide broader deployment. The hotter the planet gets, the more valuable V2G becomes: higher temperatures increase air conditioning use, which strains the grid and drives up demand. Vare noted that vehicles with predictable schedules, like school buses and municipal fleets, will be especially useful because of their large batteries.
Implications for Energy Markets
If V2G scales, it could reduce the need for new power plants and transmission infrastructure, ultimately lowering electricity costs for all consumers. While the pilot is small, the coalition aims to prove the technology’s reliability and economics. As Silverman put it, “these learnings are what’s going to allow this technology to scale.” The success of the Massachusetts test could accelerate V2G adoption nationwide, making electric vehicles a linchpin of grid stability and renewable energy integration.
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