That is, if the power goes out, your home should be able to switch to battery power without you even noticing. “We feel like EVs can provide the notion of helping make power outages invisible for customers,” says Aaron August, VP of business development and customer engagement at Pacific Gas and Electric, one of California’s major utilities. But those EVs could also be used to power their owners’ homes, decreasing the overall demand on the grid. This month, during a record heat wave, California officials credited residents’ response to a daily text alert warning them to stop unnecessary energy usage-for example, unplugging their EVs-with avoiding rolling blackouts. (Tesla has a similar opt-in program for their Powerwall home batteries, which dispatch power to the grid during peak demand.) The customer should be able to opt out of a given event if need be, like if they’re expecting to need a full charge on their EV in order to leave town. This could happen through email or an app, or even a notification that appears on the dashboard of the vehicle itself. “Giving the customer a heads-up that it might happen, even if it’s just a day ahead, that can be super helpful.” “The customer who’s participating knows when their vehicle might be called to provide power,” says Samantha Houston, a senior vehicles analyst for the clean transportation program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. So how would this work for a customer? A utility might ask EV owners to make their batteries available during extreme heat events, for example.
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