California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed two bills designed to help lower rising energy costs in the state.
One introduced by Sen. Nancy Skinner (D) aims to increase the use of bidirectional charging for electric vehicles, and one by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D) requires a study of total energy costs to help identify actions to reduce energy bills.
Skinner said in a statement that her bill “will accelerate the transition to bidirectional charging so that EVs can provide clean energy to homes, slash utility bills, and stabilize the grid.”
The bill directs the California Energy Commission, in consultation with the California Air Resources Board and the Public Utilities Commission, to examine the most effective uses of bidirectional charging. The Energy Commission would then have the authority to require certain new electric vehicles to come equipped with bidirectional capability.
“Bidirectional capabilities in [battery electric vehicles] have the potential to improve customer energy reliability, resiliency and demand management during electric grid stress events, while supporting our state’s transition to zero-emission transportation,” Newsom said in a signing statement.
The governor also instructed the Energy Commission to rely on relevant work done by the state public utilities commission and the California Air Resources Board “given the technical complexities of bidirectional charging with BEVs, and the relationship between such standards and vehicle standards already set by CARB.”
Bidirectional charging allows electric vehicle batteries to put power back onto the grid rather than just storing it to run the vehicle. At an average of 72 kilowatt hours, the batteries have more electric storage capacity than other storage units in people’s homes and are estimated to be able to power a home for two days.
Maryland approved a smart grid package in April that would demand utilities accelerate the incorporation of bidirectional-charging systems for electric vehicles into the state’s power grid. It would also allow homeowners with solar and other power generating and storage systems to be compensated for returning electricity to the grid.
Read more: Maryland is setting the foundation for smarter grid
Petrie-Norris’s bill directs the public utilities commission to evaluate households’ overall energy burden and to develop strategies and a framework to reduce total energy costs by 2035. The framework will be used to evaluate requests from utilities to recover costs from ratepayers. The bill also initiates a review of the hundreds of public-purpose programs that ratepayers currently fund. The bill also commissions a study on public financing for transmission infrastructure.
Energy costs have soared in the state. Residential rates for Pacific Gas & Electric, the state’s largest electric utility, have increased 110% over the last decade, according to the California Public Utilities Commission’s Public Advocates Office,.
“Taken together, this suite of solutions will set the stage for us to lower bills for everyone and to put more money back into the pockets of California families,” Petrie-Norris said at a committee meeting last month.