North Carolina regulators have approved a pilot program that would allow Duke Energy to supplement the power grid with electricity from customers' electric vehicle batteries when demand is high. The test will initially involve 100 customers who lease Ford F-150 Lightning pickup trucks.
While the truck is plugged into a home charger, Duke would be able to reverse the flow to pull electricity onto the grid a couple of times a month. In exchange, customers’ lease payments will be reduced by about $25 a month. There's a $25 gift card bonus if they supply additional power.
Will that be enough to compensate customers for the power Duke uses? That's one of the details being studied, said Duke Energy spokeswoman Logan Kureczka — and it depends on exactly when Duke draws the power.
"We believe the $25 per month will be greater than the value of the energy they are billed for what is discharged from the battery during the events," Kureczka said in an email. But, she added: "We don’t know exactly how much energy will be discharged during each event. …The value is also not known as it is tied to the amount that can be discharged and the time period when it can be discharged."
The data will help Duke design a more widely-available commercial program in the next few years, she said.
Customers will need Ford-supplied devices that connect the vehicle batteries to their homes and to the grid. Kureczka said those "vehicle-to-grid" devices are not yet available and it's not clear when the pilot will begin.