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Dive Brief:
The Maryland House of Delegates passed a landmark bill April 4 requiring electric utilities to expedite bidirectional EV charging system interconnections and pay customers for providing grid services through virtual power plant networks.
The Distributed Renewable Integration and Vehicle Electrification Act asks utilities to submit vehicle-to-grid charging plans to the Maryland Public Service Commission by April 2025 and VPP plans by July 2025 while setting a September 2028 deadline for Maryland utilities to implement time-of-use rates. The bill, which previously cleared the Senate, was sent to Maryland governor Wes Moore, D, for his signature.
“Pairing battery storage with renewable generation will help Maryland achieve its clean energy goals, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and mitigate the negative impacts of climate change,” Del. David Fraser-Hidalgo, the bill’s lead sponsor, said in an email to Utility Dive.
Dive Insight:
If signed into law, the DRIVE Act would add Maryland to the list of states and territories where utility customers with access to distributed energy resources like rooftop solar and home batteries could earn compensation for providing meaningful grid services.
In California, for example, a VPP pilot by Sunrun and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. generated an average of 30 megawatts of daily demand-response capacity from about 8,500 residential solar-and-storage systems to reduce strain on local grids during the peak evening demand period, according to Canary Media. Sunnova claims its 10-MWh Puerto Rico VPP has helped prevent five blackouts since last November as the island territory’s fragile grid struggles to recover from a devastating 2017 hurricane.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Order 2222 laid the groundwork for DER hosts to participate in regional electricity markets, but implementation has been uneven across the country. California, Texas, Puerto Rico and now Maryland are seen as being ahead of the curve, with the DRIVE Act’s bidirectional EV charging provision representing first-of-its-kind support for the technology at the state level.
As bidirectional-capable EVs and solar-plus-storage resources become more common across Maryland, the DRIVE Act could help reduce the need for new transmission and distribution infrastructure in the state and throughout the congested PJM Interconnection region, Robin Dutta, acting executive director of the Chesapeake Solar and Storage Association, told Utility Dive.
Although it began reforming its interconnection process last year, PJM remains so backlogged with interconnection requests that the Organization of PJM States predicted last year that some proposed generation projects that entered its interconnection queue before 2022 would not be operational until the end of the decade. PJM’s interconnection process reform, which FERC approved in late 2022, included a pause on new approvals until early 2026.
As PJM’s longer-term transmission and distribution plans remain mired in uncertainty, smaller-scale DERs could help pick up the slack in the meantime while reducing ratepayers’ share of grid expansion costs, Dutta said.
“We don’t know when we’ll get approval on [transmission and distribution expansion] plans,” Dutta said. “We can’t completely avoid the need to expand the grid, but we should aim to reduce [that need] with ‘non-wires’ alternatives.”
Advocates expect the DRIVE Act to support grid resiliency as well. Approximately 13% of Eastern Interconnection generation resources failed during Winter Storm Elliott in late 2022, according to FERC and the North American Electric Reliability Corp.
“The DRIVE Act is a massive step forward in Maryland’s commitment to … building a resilient grid in the face of extreme weather events,” Sunrun Director of Public Policy Thad Culley said in a statement shared with Utility Dive.
Gov. Moore is expected to sign the DRIVE Act in the coming days, but the timing is unclear in the aftermath of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse and lingering state legislative business, according to a spokesperson for Sunrun.
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The post Bidirectional EV charging, VPP bill passes Maryland Assembly, heads to governor’s desk appeared first on Energy News Beat.
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