Eversource, National Grid to Pay EV Owners for V2G Power
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- Eversource and National Grid are adding residential vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging to their ConnectedSolutions virtual power plant programs in Massachusetts, letting qualifying EV owners earn incentives for sending stored electricity back to the grid during high-demand periods.
- EnergyHub, Sunrun, and The Mobility House are providing the smart-charging and grid-integration technology for the residential V2G test, with Sunrun's director of grid services Chip Silverman calling vehicle batteries 'critical' for grid stabilization and lowering energy costs.
- Eversource and National Grid have not yet announced which EVs and bidirectional chargers will qualify, when enrollment will open, or how much participating drivers will be paid — leaving the program's actual economics unclear.
- ConnectedSolutions already aggregates smart thermostats, home batteries, and commercial equipment for grid demand response, and National Grid is already running V2G with light- and medium-duty fleets starting with electric school buses, while Eversource is in talks with school districts through its ConnectedSolutions+ program.
- Massachusetts has more than 150,000 EVs on its roads, a potentially large distributed battery pool that utilities aim to tap to prevent system strain, reduce reliance on expensive peak power, and potentially lower costs for all ratepayers.
Why it matters: With more than 150,000 EVs already on Massachusetts roads and bidirectional-capable models growing, residential V2G could turn driveways into a distributed power plant — but the utilities haven't disclosed pay rates, eligibility, or enrollment timing, so the program's real-world attractiveness to EV owners remains untested.
