ENERGY STORAGE NEWS
GM launches V2G, V2H power study for PG&E in California General Motors is to pilot the use of its electric vehicles as on-demand power sources for homes served by the Pacific Gas & Electric utility in California, GM announced on March 8. The pilot’s first vehicleto-home capable EV and charger will be tested by this summer — including the use of bidirectional hardware coupled with software to enable power to flow from a charged EV into a home — “automati-
cally coordinating between the EV, home and PG&E’s electric supply”, GM said. After lab testing, PG&E and GM plan to test vehicleto-home interconnection by allowing a small number of customers’ homes to receive power from the EV when power stops flowing from the grid. The goal is to extend to larger customer tries by the end of the year. GM CEO Mary Barra said the pilot program, using multiple GM EVs,
further expands its electrification strategy, “demonstrating our EVs are reliable mobile sources of power. Our teams are working to rapidly scale this pilot and bring bidirectional charging technology to our customers.” By the end of 2025, GM says it plans to have more than one million units of EV capacity in North America to respond to growing demand, using the company’s Ultium battery
VPP tech firm GridBeyond makes moves into Australian market Energy tech company GridBeyond said on April 21 it is to start providing virtual power plant services in Australia. The company, whose investors include Saft battery maker owner TotalEnergies, will work with businesses through Australia’s National Elec-
tricity Market, also using GridBeyond’s artificial intelligence and data science technology for commercial and industrial customers to take part in grid balancing, trading energy generation and storage through wholesale markets. GridBeyond said it started commercially trad-
ing in Ireland in 2010 with €800,000 (about $858,000) in backing from the AIB Seed Capital Fund, which is managed by the Dublin Business Innovation Centre. In 2011, the company developed an integrated energy management system for demandside response services.
Canada Pension Plan invests in Hydrostor for A-CAES projects Energy storage firm Hydrostor said on April 19 it had secured a $25 million investment boost or its Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage (A-CAES) projects from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The CPP’s backing follows a $250 million investment pledge for Hydrostor made in January by investment bank Goldman Sachs. CPP said its financing would support Torontobased Hydrostor’s strategy of developing, constructing, and operating A-CAES facilities globally. Hydrostor says its ACAES technology works by compressing air using
electricity — preferably from renewable sources — then extracting heat from the air and storing it inside a purpose-built cavern, where hydrostatic compensation is used to maintain the system at a constant pressure during operation. The compressed air is converted to electricity on demand and can provide long-duration storage in a similar way to pumped hydro, the firm says. Hydrostor has projects underway in Toronto, Ontario, California and New South Wales, and is looking at South America for future installations. CPP’s managing director and head of sustainable
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energies Bruce Hogg said: “Long-duration energy storage is a critical component in the decarbonization of electrical grids. Hydrostor’s solutions provide a unique investment opportunity aligned with our focus on the energy evolution.” On February 22, Hydrostor said a consortium it had formed with French energy group EDF and Io Consulting was awarded £1 million ($1.3 million) from the UK government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy to assess Hydrostor’s technology using mothballed gas cavities in the UK.
technology developed with joint venture partner LG Energy Solution. According to the sustainable development scenario of the International Energy Agency’s Global EV Outlook 2020, released in June that year, the cumulative total of 16,000GWh of energy expected to be stored in EV batteries globally in 2030 “could actively provide energy to the grid at suitable times via V2G solutions”. The firm continued to attract fresh funding and expanded its operations to Great Britain in 2012. GridBeyond entered the US market with an office in Texas in 2020 and opened an HQ in Japan last year. As of 2021, the company said it had a global portfolio of more than 1GW of load. GridBeyond CEO Michael Phelan said the frequency response market in Australia was similar to ones the company manages in Ireland to handle flexible energy resources and “co-optimise them with wholesale trading”. “Our microgrid controls that integrate electric vehicles are also a good fit for Australia’s energy market need,” Phelan said. “Operating in the VPP & DERMS (distributed energy resource management systems) market that is planned to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 20% by 2026, GridBeyond is strongly positioned to continue the significant growth we have seen and to continue to support businesses, asset owners and grid operators throughout the transition to a net zero future and beyond.”
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