Intelligent Electric Vehicle Integration (INVENT)
Nuvve Corporation, a San Diego-based leader in vehicle-grid integration, is developing technologies and strategies to maximize the benefits of electric vehicles to the grid.
Nuvve Holding Corp.
Recipient
San Diego, CA
Recipient Location
39th
Senate District
77th
Assembly District
$3,967,165
Amount Spent
Completed
Project Status
Project Result
In the summer of 2020, Nuvve successfully participated in Demand Response on California's wholesale energy markets through an agreement with SDG&E by using a mix of stationary storage and electric vehicle charging stations (uni-directional and bi-directional) installed at various locations on the UCSD campus. These charging stations have also demonstrated a capability to perform demand charge management, frequency regulation, and renewable energy time shifting as part of Nuvve's use cases. The project is completed and the final report is published.
The Issue
As the Plug-in Electric Vehicle (PEV) population grows in California, the demand for electricity as a transportation fuel may lead to congestion and overloading on the transmission and distribution grid. Simultaneously, increasing the introduction of renewable energy sources requires adoption of more closely coordinated grid capabilities to effectively regulate grid voltage and frequency on a real-time basis and address morning and afternoon ramping.
Project Innovation
This project is deploying vehicle-grid integration (VGI) technology with unidirectional and bidirectional power flow capabilities using light fleet and consumer vehicles. These vehicles will provide local grid support by controlling the charge rate based on locally available energy and power capacity, controlling the voltage, and providing grid-wide support by participating in frequency regulation or adjusting the reactive power. The mix of services provided will be optimized within a campus laboratory setting with the goal of expanding this technology into a real-world setting.
Project Benefits
This project is developing an advanced VGI technology to optimize the blend of unidirectional charging, bidirectional operation, and vehicle-to-building functions, for different real-world grid applications such as frequency regulation, power quality, voltage control, and grid support. The project will show the value of EVs as distributed energy resources, with the ability to defer or eliminate the need for grid upgrades, and enable greater renewable energy penetrations.
Affordability
The combination of load adjustment and energy storage is the most cost-effective way to integrate PEV and renewable energy sources at the same time. PEVs, when not being used, can provide low-cost distributed energy storage.
Environmental Sustainability
Helping to make EVs more affordable by identifying revenue creating strategies will increase the penetration of EVs. This will help to lower local pollution by reducing fossil fuel consumption within local transportation.
Reliability
Since the batteries in the EVs function as distributed storage resources, they can improve grid reliability by stabilizing the grid-wide frequency as well as mitigating local grid overload in transformers or feeders.
Key Project Members
Kelsey Johnson
Subrecipients
The Regents of the University of California, on behalf of the San Diego campus
Strategen
FleetCarma
Joel R Point Charging Station Consultant
Match Partners
The Regents of the University of California, on behalf of the San Diego campus
Strategen
Nuvve Holding Corp.
FleetCarma
