By Rod Walton, EnergyTech Senior Editor
The electric vehicle charging infrastructure wing of Volkswagen has reached 30 MW of installed battery storage capacity at its stations across the United States, and now may utilize of that power to help deal with peak demand on the macro grid.
Electrify America reported the milestone at 140 direct current fast charging stations nationwide. More than 90 of those behind-the-meter battery storage systems are in California.
Due to its growing capacity, the company is initiating virtual power plant (VPP) services in which stored power at charging stations can be discharged back into the grid at high points of demand.
“We are constantly striving to introduce innovations that will drive the EV industry forward,” said Giovanni Palazzo, president and chief executive officer at Electrify America. “With this significant deployment of battery energy storage, Electrify America will be able to help ensure a more efficient customer experience, especially as EV adoption increases and infrastructure demands continue to grow.”
Electrify America says these services will smooth out price fluctuations which can spike during times of peak demand. When traditional demand charges are levied upon high-capacity, low-utilization infrastructure such as high-powered EV charging stations, they place a disproportionate cost burden on the station owners.
Beyond this current installed energy storage portfolio, Electrify America is working on certification and initial roll-out of its next generation of onsite behind-the-meter battery energy storage early next year that will support higher peak power or demand mitigation capability in approximately the same footprint.
The company also selected Olivine to help promote vehicle-to-grid integration in wholesale energy markets. Behind-the-meter services such as demand response help support vehicle-grid integration by reducing the need for more costly and often more polluting peaking power plants.
Volkswagen Group of America founded the EV charging infrastructure offshoot four years ago. Part of the impetus behind the Electrify America formation was an agreement with U.S. regulators in the fallout of the company’s emissions scandal.
