Canada has a new national initiative aimed at making electric vehicles part of the country’s electricity grid. Dunsky Energy + Climate Advisors has launched the Canadian Vehicle-Grid Integration (VGI) Alliance, bringing together utilities, governments and industry organizations to help move bidirectional charging beyond small pilot projects.
Initial partners include BC Hydro, Manitoba Hydro, Alectra, the Government of Canada, the Government of Nova Scotia, Electric Mobility Canada and the Vehicle-Grid Integration Council, while General Motors Canada is among the industry supporters.
The goal is to make it easier for EVs to send electricity back to the grid when demand is high, helping utilities manage peak loads and improve reliability.
We’ve already seen some of this technology put to the test in Canada. Last year, BC Hydro launched a pilot using electric school buses as mobile power sources, demonstrating how large EV batteries could provide electricity when needed.
Tesla is also exploring similar technology south of the border, with Cybertruck vehicle-to-grid programs in California and Texas.
The new Canadian alliance wants to build on these early efforts by addressing some of the challenges that have prevented vehicle-grid integration from becoming more widely available.
Starting this fall, members will hold working sessions in three areas: market alignment, standards and interoperability; the investment and regulatory paths needed to scale up; and coordinated deployment and the customer experience.
Electric Mobility Canada is also leading a project to develop an online VGI Knowledge Centre, which the alliance plans to launch this fall.
“Canada is preparing to double its electricity grid, and we’ll need every tool in the toolkit to do it affordably. Electric vehicles are batteries on wheels, and those batteries can be leveraged to reduce peak and strengthen reliability. Canada has seen promising pilots. The next step is market-scale deployment, and that will take utilities, automakers, regulators and governments working together,” said Philippe Dunsky, founder and president of Dunsky.
The alliance has not announced funding commitments or specific deployment targets. Its first working sessions will focus on creating the common framework needed to bring vehicle-to-grid technology to more Canadian drivers.
Related Articles:
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