Electric Farm Vehicles as Reliable Grid Assets
Gridtractor, Inc.
Recipient
Recipient Location
$536,543
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
Since the project initiated in September 2022, the project team has completed site surveys of the two demonstration sites to inform the development electric plans and identify EVSE locations. One of the bidirectional DC EVSE chargers has been installed and commissioned in a laboratory setting for initial testing, and the project team has begun developing the design specs for an onboard AC bidirectional charger. Additionally, in February 2023, the project team held the first Technical Advisory Committee Meeting to solicit input on technical components of the project such as standards and use cases, as well as project performance metrics.
The Issue
Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) is nascent across sectors, particularly in the agricultural sector. Electric tractors are entering commercial scale production and do not have the onboard capabilities nor the related Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) and control systems for bidirectional charging to support critical on-farm and rural loads during PSPS events or other reliability and grid management use cases. Development of technology to support and add value to electrification of California’s tractor fleet will accelerate the transition to EFVs and enable the state to take advantage of more than 2,000 megawatts of existing electrical infrastructure for vehicle electrification at a time when other sectors are limited by the need to deploy new electrical services.
Project Innovation
This project will demonstrate an on-farm mobile microgrid concept, which involves bidirectional charging of battery-electric agricultural tractors to support loads during outages, participate in demand response, and load shift in response to time of use tariffs. The project will develop high power discharge capabilities for the electric tractor, integrate bidirectional chargers with on-farm electrical service points, and manage charging and loads in several grid integration use cases.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
Affordability
The project will lower overall charging costs through the development of high-capacity chargers with higher efficiency and energy management capabilities.
Reliability
The project will result in greater electricity reliability in agricultural applications through the use of electric tractors supporting critical loads during PSPS events and other grid disruptions.
Key Project Members
David Meyers
Subrecipients
Polaris Energy Services Inc.
Rhombus Energy Solutions, Inc.
Zimeno, Inc.
Current Ways, Inc.
Cal-West Rain, Inc.
Huis Digital, LLC
Match Partners
Polaris Energy Services Inc.
Rhombus Energy Solutions, Inc.
Gridtractor, Inc.
Zimeno, Inc.
Current Ways, Inc.
Huis Digital, LLC
