Making a Business out of V2G

Hi my name is Paige Mullen - European programme  manager at Nuvve. Nuvve is an electric vehicle   software company focusing on aggregating electric  vehicles and bidding them into the energy markets   and using electric vehicles as a form of energy  storage. The first concept of vehicle to grid   was actually published in 1996 by one of  our founders Professor Willett Kempton at   the University of Delaware.

He first saw the need  to balance out renewable generation so filling in   the times when the sun’s not always shining and  the winds not always blowing at this point he   saw that electric vehicles were aptly suited for  this since they’re parked about 96% of the time   and then through that at the university  of Delaware we began to develop our   software technology and then in 2010 spun out to  commercialize vehicle-to-group technology as Nuvve   and now we operate in five continents around  the world, aggregating and bidding in electric   vehicles both bi-directionally in V2G but also  unidirectionally and smart charging and advanced   grid services in order to help support the  transition to renewable energy and bridge the gap   between the electric transportation system  and the electric grid as well as lowering   the total cost of EV ownership so that we  can get more people into electric vehicles.   The future energy system is not going to be built  off of just one technology it’s going to be built   off of many different technologies all working  together one of the key differentiators of vehicle   to grid is increasing the utilization of an asset  outside of its primary purpose these vehicles   were built and purchased initially for mobility  purposes but in the times when they’re parked   we’re able to provide smart charging for energy  savings or grid services for additional revenues   to help lower the total cost of ownership.

I  see tremendous opportunity for vehicle to grid   around the world because each market is very  different that the needs of the electric networks   in California are going to be very different than  the needs of the electric network in Kapan or   in the UK or in Denmark or Namibia that each of  these markets have their own benefits their own   drawbacks and hurdles that they’re working to  overcome as they start to add in more clean   technology to it and this also translates  to the type of vehicles in the use cases   whether that’s residential vehicles heavy duty  fleets and shipping across it that each of these   different customer segments and markets really has  a completely different value proposition so it’s   it’s hard to look at vehicle to grid in one  single fashion or a one-size-fits-all model and   we really need to look at each of the markets and  countries and regions and what’s needed to help   really support the transition to electrification  but also to clean energy and clean technology that   we’re wanting to have.

That’s one of the things  that we’ve seen at Nuvve as we’ve worked in so   many different markets around the world is that it  really comes with a custom look into each of these   markets and their needs as well as the challenges  that each of these markets have but the main key   challenges that we’ve seen across the world that  although we are able to still provide commercial   V2G services and for example in Denmark, Nuvve has  been providing frequency regulation with EVs now   commercially for over five years so these  customers they leave every morning they come   back every evening and while their cars are parked  overnight they’re providing frequency regulation   services but that doesn’t mean that this works in  every single market just yet some of the key the   three key barriers that we really see right now is  the accessibility to energy markets especially for   distributed assets that might be behind the  meter a lot of the energy markets were originally   developed for very large stationary centralized  generation but now that we’re starting to see   more distributed technologies but they’re really  well suited to being able to provide this service   these services at a lower cost and so opening up  these markets is critical to capturing the full   potential of V2G.

The other is V2G standards in  both hardware and in vehicles right now this is   still somewhat new technology and each market is  very different in the requirements they have for   for some vehicles for the electrification  protocols and starting to harmonize these will   really help speed up the adoption of vehicle  to grid. And lastly it’s the compatibility   of vehicle to grid with electric vehicles we are  seeing so many new vehicle models coming to market   all around the world and really starting to  build in that vehicle to grid capabilities   so that all vehicles have the potential to be  able to provide vehicle to grid.

And lastly my   one wish to improve the V2G industry is that all  electric vehicles would come with a standard V2G   capabilities built into them so that they’re  all able to provide vehicle-to-grid services.