The purpose of this solicitation is to fund applied research and development and technology demonstration and deployment projects that support the 2021 Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) Interim Investment Plan initiative 7 titled “Vehicle to Building Technologies for Resilient Backup Power.”
California’s simultaneous transitions to zero emission transportation and decarbonized electricity systems will create opportunities to use growing deployments of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) for electric services. Systems that enable the use of energy stored in PEV batteries to power loads inside residential, commercial, or public buildings—referred to as vehicle-to-building (V2B) technologies—can provide resilience and reliability benefits that help mitigate the impacts of power outages driven by extreme heat events, wildfires, and public safety power shutoffs. PEVs contain large batteries that could potentially provide the same backup power services as behind the meter stationary storage at a lower cost than purchasing a dedicated storage system and without the emissions associated with diesel backup generators.
This solicitation seeks to accelerate development of technologies and easy-to-implement products that allow individual or fleets of PEVs to power residential, commercial, or public buildings including but not limited to schools, community centers, or government facilities during electricity outages or intentional islanding events. Projects must fall within one of the following project groups, with Group 3 targeting demonstrations at public facilities located in disadvantaged communities (DACs) and/or low-income communities (LICs):
- Group 1: Rule 21 Compliant or Exempt V2B Technologies
- Group 2 Rule 21 Non-Compliant V2B Technologies and Enablers
- Group 3: Rule 21 Compliant or Exempt V2B Technologies Demonstrated at Public Buildings in DACs and/or LICs.
- There is up to $19,500,000 available for grants awarded under this solicitation. The total, minimum, and maximum funding amounts for each project group are listed below.
Project Group | Available funding | Minimum award amount | Maximum award amount | Minimum match funding (% of EPIC Funds Requested) |
Group 1: Rule 21 compliant or exempt V2B technologies | $6,000,000 | $3,000,000 | $4,000,000 | 30% |
Group 2: Rule 21 non-compliant V2B technologies and enablers | $7,500,000 | $2,000,000 | $4,000,000 | 20% |
Group 3: Rule 21 compliant or exempt V2B technologies demonstrated at public buildings in DACs and/or LICs | $6,000,000 | $3,000,000 | $4,000,000 | 10% |
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