Vehicle-to-Building (V2B)

Overview

As a commercial building owner, about 65% of NextEnergy’s monthly energy bill is based on usage. The other 35% is a “demand charge” based on how much power we needed on our worst day of the past year. Utilities include this charge to all of their commercial customers because they have to anticipate the highest energy usage possible.

Leveraging our MicroGrid Pavilion (MGP)and using our main corporate building, FCA US LLC and NextEnergy explored how a fleet of Fiat 500e bi-directional electric vehicles could provide benefit to FCA, fleet owner or facility owner via participation in Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G)/Vehicle-to-Building (V2B) energy management as an additional power source to offset peak pricing and lower energy costs.

The Work We Did

  • Demonstrated the use of the vehicles in fleet and workplace scenarios
  • Calculated economic opportunity based on geography and relationship with utility
  • Worked with 3rd party engineering services firm to customize onboard vehicle charger
  • Leveraged existing research model as a baseline for comparison of improved benefits
  • Established the EV fleet as a power generator asset that could bid into the Regional Transmission Organizations (RTO)/Independent System Operators (ISO) market
  • Worked with FCA to design and run testing and validate services
  • Developed a custom “Campus Power Overview” dashboard to monitor real time campus demand, grid power, solar output, and the charging status of four bi-directional electric vehicles.

Outcomes

Findings of the study demonstrated that using the energy stored in the electric vehicle batteries as an additional power source to our building did not change how much energy the building used, but limited how much we took from the grid. Finding that geographical region has a significant impact on potential energy cost savings, the projected yearly savings for NextEnergy in Demand Mitigation charges were estimated at up to $15,000.

What’s Next

NextEnergy will continue to explore the development of new use cases based on longer range vehicles, new communication standards, and how to leverage Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to improve outcomes.

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