Ford EV Owners Can Now Get Paid To Support Southern California Grid – CleanTechnica

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If you own or lease a Ford electric vehicle, you can now get paid to support the electricity grid in Southern California, and you don’t even need vehicle-to-grid technology. This is specifically in the Southern California Edison utility district, and it is initially only an option for Ford EV owners (others will likely be added in time).

The Ford EV owners will be compensated for reducing their electricity demand at times when the grid is under extra pressure — when there’s high electricity demand and it’s getting too close to available electricity supply. Going a step further, if a Ford EV does have vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability, it can also be used to send electricity from the EV’s battery back into the grid for extra compensation.

The program is called the California Power Response. It is Ford’s part of the Southern California Edison (SCE) Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP). It is operated in coordination with Olivine ClimateResponse® VPP. (VPP = virtual power plant.)

“Besides benefitting from easy and convenient home charging, Ford customers can now enroll to receive financial benefits by allowing Ford to automatically pause their electric vehicle charging during peak demand periods, with the ability to override the pause if they need to charge sooner,” Ford writes. “Customers will earn $1/kWh of energy reduced during the peak demand events. To register, eligible customers can follow instructions on the following link.”

The nice thing about this program, too, is that it can only get better. With each new batch of Ford EV sales, the potential for flexible electricity demand grows. Ford EV drivers can have more and more positive impact on the grid year after year.

“The future of the two-way grid is now. The electric industry has been preparing infrastructure and systems to take advantage of vehicle-to-grid integration, and a lot of hard work on all sides is now making that a reality,” said Steve Powell, president and CEO of SCE. “Ford’s support of the ELRP will show how EVs can make the grid more resilient. The ELRP incentivizes EV drivers to send power from their car battery to the grid when it is needed most.”

“Becoming the first U.S. automaker to participate in the ELRP program through Ford’s California Power Response program is another example of Ford maximizing every benefit possible for our electric vehicle customers,” said Bill Crider, senior director, global charging and energy services, Ford Motor Company. “Electric vehicles can deliver cost savings through incentives provided by leading utilities such as Southern California Edison, and current vehicle-to-home and near-future vehicle-to-grid services open even more benefits to customers, the electric grid and communities at large.”

I’m very curious to hear the experiences of Ford EV owners and lessees who participate in this program. If you join the program, please keep us posted via comments here on CleanTechnica or even Letters to the Editor. I’m sure many of our readers would love to read about your experiences.

From the grid perspective, will this program help deal with the infamous “duck curve?” I presume it will. In fact, I’m not sure how much longer the duck curve can survive in California with all the energy storage and demand response solutions that have been arriving on the grid.