Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), Nissan and Fermata Energy are collaborating in California on a demonstration of automated frequency capabilities integrating electric vehicles and bi-directional chargers with a multi-user microgrid to provide grid support and enhance energy resilience.

PG&E, Nissan, Fermata Energy and the Schatz Energy Research Center at Cal Poly Humboldt, along with the Humboldt County Aviation Division, have implemented Fermata Energy’s vehicle-to-everything (V2X) optimisation platform integrated using two Nissan Leaf vehicles equipped with Chademo quick charge ports and four bidirectional FE-20 charging stations at the Redwood Coast Airport Microgrid (RCAM) in McKinleyville, California.

“Integrating bidirectional chargers and EVs at the Redwood Coast Airport Microgrid is an innovation that will expand the capacity of the site, extending the capability for powering the airport during local grid outages and providing another clean energy resource for ensuring statewide grid stability,” said Mike Delaney, vice president at PG&E (pge.com). “The project showcases innovative vehicle-to-microgrid [V2M] technologies and demonstrates how EVs can support local energy needs and grid resilience.”

RCAM is jointly operated by PG&E and the Redwood Coast Energy Authority, Humboldt County’s local energy provider. The capacity and capabilities of the microgrid are enhanced to enable the automated grid frequency response demonstration of Fermata Energy’s V2X platform, an important part of PG&E’s grid resilience efforts and an industry-first accomplishment.

“At Fermata Energy, we see a real opportunity to transform electric vehicles from simple modes of transportation into critical energy assets,” said Hamza Lemsaddek, chief operating officer of Fermata Energy (fermataenergy.com). “By integrating our intelligent V2X platform and bidirectional chargers, we are delivering measurable cost savings, valuable grid services and enhanced local energy resilience. This pilot provides a scalable blueprint for communities, fleets and utilities to harness EVs as distributed energy resources, accelerating the transition to a cleaner and more reliable grid in California and beyond.”

The project also incorporates microgrid control functionality developed by the Schatz Center, allowing the EVs to support the microgrid in balancing solar energy and battery energy storage in real time, enhancing local resilience and broader grid stability.

“We are proud to have led the technical integration of this important pilot project that advances local resiliency and deep decarbonisation and can play an important role in the community microgrids that are being developed across California’s rural north coast and beyond,” said David Carter, principal engineer at the Schatz Energy Research Center (schatzcenter.org/microgrids).

The Humboldt County Aviation Division purchased a 2021 Nissan Leaf as a participant in this pilot project. Nissan provided a second 2020 Leaf under an agreement with Humboldt County. Their batteries will offset grid usage and provide electric bill savings for Humboldt County.

“Nissan is proud to collaborate on innovative projects that explore how electric vehicles can contribute to energy resilience and sustainability,” said Rich Miller, vice president for Nissan (www.nissan-global.com). “This pilot demonstrates the potential for EVs to support local energy needs and grid stability, and we look forward to continuing to work with partners like PG&E to explore these technologies.”

The two-vehicle fleet is available to county staff for work activities. When not in use, the EVs are plugged into the bidirectional chargers, which can both charge and discharge the EV batteries. When discharging, the energy from the batteries is used for energy management, providing electric bill savings for Humboldt County.

Additionally, the vehicles respond to grid stress events, generating revenue by participating in California’s ELRP emergency load reduction programme. When the statewide or regional grid is under stress, the V2X system will respond to signals from the ELRP. This allows vehicle owners to voluntarily support the statewide electricity grid during periods of stress and earn revenue by sending electricity back to the grid.

When RCAM is islanded (not connected to the grid), the car-charger combinations will operate normally unless the microgrid’s batteries are nearly full or empty. In those cases, the Schatz Center’s microgrid control functionality uses small changes in grid frequency to command available car-charger combinations to either inject power into the microgrid to prevent the microgrid battery from becoming depleted or absorb excess solar energy if the microgrid battery is full.

The project partners anticipate the project will yield learnings and results for designing and implementing grid architectures in support of California’s goals of being 60 per cent renewable by 2030 and 100 per cent renewable and zero-carbon by 2045.