Ford, utility team up to pay EV owners for using less power

Southern California residents who drive a Ford Motor Co. electric vehicle can make a little extra cash by helping to keep the state's power grid from getting overtaxed.

Ford said it's the first automaker to participate in Southern California Edison's Emergency Load Reduction Program, which pays customers $1 per kilowatt-hour in reduced usage during peak demand periods. The utility's lowest rate under the Time-of-Use prime plan that it recommends for EVs is 23 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to its website.

"The future of the two-way grid is now. The electric industry has been preparing infrastructure and systems to take advantage of vehicle-to-grid integration, and a lot of hard work on all sides is now making that a reality," Steve Powell, the utility's CEO, said in a statement. "Ford's support of the ELRP will show how EVs can make the grid more resilient. The ELRP incentivizes EV drivers to send power from their car battery to the grid when it is needed most."

A Southern California Edison spokesperson told Utility Dive that Ford EV owners eventually could return power to the grid, but for now the program is being used to manage when people charge.

California utility regulators created the program, which is open only to business customers, in 2021 as a way to reduce brownouts. Participants normally receive $2 per kilowatt-hour, but Ford is keeping half of that amount to cover its own costs while passing on the other half to customers, the spokesperson said.

"Becoming the first U.S. automaker to participate in the ELRP program through Ford's California Power Response program is another example of Ford maximizing every benefit possible for our electric vehicle customers," said Bill Crider, Ford's senior director of global charging and energy services. "Electric vehicles can deliver cost savings through incentives provided by leading utilities such as Southern California Edison, and current vehicle-to-home and near-future vehicle-to-grid services open even more benefits to customers, the electric grid and communities at large."