FCA has taken up the challenge and, through an agreement with Engie EPS (an industrial player that develops technologies to revolutionize the paradigm in the global energy industry) and Terna (the operator that manages the electricity-transmission grid in Italy), launched the first phase of a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) pilot project in Turin, Italy, to test potential connections of the company’s vehicles to the grid. The Dross project at FCA’s Mirafiori complex in Turin is a world first for the company and, once completed, the V2G system will be the world’s largest pilot project of its kind among those that have thus far been announced. V2G is a technology based on bidirectional load management, which transforms electric vehicles into large, "mobile batteries" that interact intelligently with the grid.
In practical terms, vehicles draw energy for recharging during periods of lower consumption and give energy back to the grid when demand is high, thereby helping to balance supply and demand and to avoid blackouts. In other words, they provide “grid-flexibility” services in order to increase stability and safety.
When the final system has been perfected so as to enable individual vehicles to participate in this market, the flexible services provided by electric vehicles will also result in cost savings. As a result, the V2G system will not only improve grid performance, but will also create value for drivers, who will be able to optimize the total cost of ownership of their cars. At the moment, the project serves as an opportunity to demonstrate that V2G technology works, but it will eventually become a repeatable business model that will offer significant savings to parking garages and corporate fleet managers.
To read the full details of the project and how it will work visit https://www.fcagroup.com/en-US/media_center/insights/Pages/vehicle_to_grid.aspx
