Vehicle-grid integration lets an electric vehicle’s battery power devices, a home or the electricity grid, but in Canada only the simplest form is broadly available today. Vehicle-to-load, offered on models like the Kia EV9 and Ford F-150 Lightning, needs no installation. Vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid depend on approved equipment and utility rules that vary by province, which is the problem the new Canadian VGI Alliance is trying to solve.
This post was originally published on EVD2.ca.
Dunsky Energy + Climate Advisors announced the Canadian Vehicle-Grid Integration (VGI) Alliance this week. The idea is to get utilities, governments and automakers working from the same rulebook so EVs can send power back to homes and the grid, instead of every project being a one-off pilot. BC Hydro, Manitoba Hydro and General Motors are among the backers, and the Government of Canada is involved as a strategic collaborator.
I think it’s the right problem to work on. A typical EV battery holds somewhere between 60 and 100 kWh. Multiply that by a few million cars parked in driveways and you have a very large battery that nobody is coordinating.
The hard part is getting everyone to agree. Carmakers, charger makers and utilities have to settle on standards and safety rules, and then the regulators have to sign off. Canada makes that harder than it needs to be, because equipment approved by one utility may not be approved by the next one over, or in the next province.
The alliance hasn’t announced a deployment schedule or any adoption targets. An online VGI Knowledge Centre is supposed to launch later this fall. So nobody should read this as V2G showing up in their driveway next year.
What the acronyms mean
They get used as if they mean the same thing. They don’t.
V2L (vehicle-to-load) is the simple one. The car has a built-in outlet or takes an adapter, and you plug things straight into it. Tools at the cottage, a campsite, a few essentials during an outage. No home installation needed.
V2H (vehicle-to-home) feeds your house’s electrical system. That takes compatible bidirectional charging equipment and a proper install, and in return the car can carry household circuits through an outage. Some setups can also shift your usage away from expensive peak periods.
V2G (vehicle-to-grid) sends power back to the utility, and only under an approved program. Smart charging, sometimes called V1G, doesn’t export anything at all. It just picks better times to charge, which lowers the owner’s cost and takes some load off the grid.
A car that does V2L may not do V2H or V2G. Even when a manufacturer advertises bidirectional charging, the equipment, software or utility approval it needs may not be available in Canada yet.
What you can use today
V2L is the part that’s real right now. The Kia EV9 and the Ford F-150 Lightning both have it, along with several other models EVD2 tracks. They go about it differently. Some give you ordinary household outlets, others have higher-capacity systems or the manufacturer’s own home backup package.
Here’s the rough math. Take an 80 kWh battery and hold 60 kWh of it for backup. At an average household draw of 1 kW, that’s about 60 hours, before conversion losses. The real number depends mostly on what you’re running and how much you keep in reserve to actually drive somewhere.
If you have a cottage (we have one on Koshlong Lake), camp a lot, or lose power a couple of times every winter, power export belongs on your list next to range, charging speed and price.
Finding these on EVD2
EVD2 tracks power export across its Canadian EV database. You can filter the vehicle catalogue for V2L and V2H, and the side-by-side comparison shows a Power Export spec for each model.
Explore Canadian EVs with V2L and V2H on EVD2.ca
Check the exact Canadian model year and trim before you buy. A V2H listing tells you the car supports it. Whether you can buy an approved home backup system and get it installed today is a separate question.
The most useful thing the alliance could do in its first year is pretty dull: one set of rules that works in more than one province. I think if it gets that done, V2H stops being a pilot project and becomes something an electrician can quote you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Canadian VGI Alliance?
A group convened by Dunsky Energy + Climate Advisors to get utilities, governments and automakers working from the same rulebook on vehicle-grid integration. BC Hydro, Manitoba Hydro and General Motors are among the backers, and the Government of Canada is a strategic collaborator. It hasn’t set a deployment schedule or adoption targets yet. The first public piece is an online VGI Knowledge Centre due later this fall.
Can my EV power my house during an outage?
It depends which kind of power export it supports. With V2L you can run a few essentials off the car’s outlet or an adapter, with no installation. Carrying your actual household circuits is V2H, and that needs compatible bidirectional charging equipment and a proper install. A car that advertises V2L may not do V2H, and even when it does, the approved home equipment may not be sold in Canada yet.
How long can an EV battery run a home?
Hold 60 kWh of an 80 kWh battery for backup, and at an average household draw of 1 kW that’s roughly 60 hours before conversion losses. Run a heater or a stove and the number drops fast. You also want to keep enough charge to actually drive somewhere when the power comes back.
Will my car send power back to the grid?
Not on its own. V2G only works under a utility program that has approved the equipment, and those rules differ from one utility and province to the next. Smart charging is a lot closer for most owners. It doesn’t export anything, it just charges at cheaper times, which takes some load off the grid without any new hardware rules.