Ford Virtual Battery solves charge challenge

Ford is trialing a new home power management network that could avoid a looming widespread EV charging energy crisis before it ever happens.

While the number of electric vehicles on roads around the world continues to grow, providing enough power to charge them simultaneously will become an increasing challenge for electricity providers.

Ford has developed a system that connects a network of its battery-powered models into a smart grid that can actually help prevent interruptions and power ‘sag’ rather than cause them.

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Dubbed the Virtual Battery, Ford’s system connects a fleet of F-150 Lightning trucks on owner’s driveways via a monitoring and control system as well as the connection into the power grid.

If the power provider detects a spike of electricity demand that threatens to compromise or ‘brown-out’ supply, the bank – comprised of individual 131kWh batteries – can be called upon to either temporarily stop charging or even add power back into the system, preventing a supply interruption.

The smart part about Ford’s system is that each F-150 battery can be controlled individually, effectively creating a charging roster rather than attempting to charge all vehicles at the same time, which would cause the sag.

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Once the peak period has passed, the smart grid regains the capacity to return any charge that has been ‘borrowed’ from each vehicle and, if that happens to be during off-peak rates, the customer pays less for a top-up. Ford EV programs and Model E vice president Darren Palmer explains the maths.

“Multiple trucks are ready to go, and when the electricity company needs it they can command a truck to reverse the power and support the grid,” he said. “Even if it simply stops the truck charging and powers the home it’s connected to, it’ll be enough to save the grid.

“Each truck can take 20kW of charging [demand] off, plus give 10kW in so each truck can change the situation by 30kW and two trucks is 60kW. That would probably be enough to prevent a neighbourhood from browning-out.”

At this stage, the trial is only using the relatively large-battery Extended-Range Lightning which has bi-directional charging hardware as standard. In time, the Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit (which are also fitted with the necessary DC power port) will be able to contribute to a real-world Virtual Battery if it’s given the green light. The more vehicles that connect, the better the system works, says Palmer.

And the advantages don’t stop there. Backup power specialist Sunrun is partnering with Ford to install the required grid-tied inverter hardware that is available in ‘two flavours’.

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The most basic system allows the F-150 to be used as backup power only and provides the technology to feed electricity back into the grid if required or the household if there is an unavoidable power outage. “If the power goes out, the truck will power the home for three to 10 days.”

The second more advanced system incorporates solar charging as well, at a cost of about $6500 (A$10,000), and allows the homeowner to charge the F-150 with free electricity

As the cost of installing a whole-house generator hovers about the $13,000 (A$20,000), Sunrun’s install allows the F-150 Lightning to provide all the independence of a home generator as well as solar charging for about half the cost says Palmer.

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“It’s a half-price, whole-house generator that’ll run for ten days without AC. You start to get this feeling of – I’d like to power my own life, thanks.”

While other nations have facilitated the adoption of EVs through more aggressive strategies including Norway – which Palmer described as “vicious” – Ford’s approach including future features such as the Virtual Battery are less ‘stick’ and more ‘carrot’ by comparison.

“The UK and Europe for example, has put regulations in to make you have an EV. That’s very nice, but we want you to want an EV”.