(Excerpt below from article by Lisa Prevost originally posted on Energy News Network September 7, 2022.)

The largest electric distribution co-op in New England is experimenting with real-time energy rates meant to help members wring more value out of their electric vehicles and battery storage devices. 

The New Hampshire Electric Co-op plans to offer members what is called a transactive energy rate as soon as the end of this year. It will essentially enable members to become partners with the co-op, supplying energy from their batteries when it is most needed, and charging up when demand — and prices — are low. 

One of Plymouth State University's two Nissan Leaf electric vehicles, which are hooked up to vehicle-to-grid, or bi-directional, chargers on its campus. Credit: Plymouth State University

“We recognize that members can provide the resources that we need through their distributed energy resources,” said Brian Callnan, vice president of power resources and access. “We need to create a system that allows them to participate.” 

Here’s how it will work: The co-op has developed a pricing signal that can be routinely sent out over the internet showing the price of power during every hour of the following day. That’s the transactive energy rate.

Customers may choose to use that pricing signal to pre-determine their charging — or discharging — behavior. They may simply limit their energy usage during peak hours, thereby saving money on their bill. Or they might use bi-directional charging technology to discharge power to the grid during those peak hours and receive a bill credit for that discharge at the transactive rate, Callnan said.

The charging technology was developed by Fermata Energy, which was founded by David Slutzky, an engineering professor at the University of Virginia, to help accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles and the transition to renewables. 

As the country moves toward greater electrification, “electric vehicles are key to stabilizing the grid,” Slutzky said. “The Nissan Leaf became bi-directional in 2013, and there are close to a couple hundred thousand out there. Just that group of vehicles has about as much storage under the hood as the entire stationary storage industry.” 

(Read this article in its entirety on Energy News Network.)