Pilot Program Pays BMW EV Owners to Delay Charging

California utility Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is paying 100 owners of BMW AG's i3 electric hatchback $1,000 each not to recharge their vehicles during peak energy demand periods, Bloomberg News reports.

The 18-month iChargeForward pilot program, which starts this week in San Francisco, will send a text alert to participants as necessary to ask that they delay charging based on power grid loads.

There are about 65,000 EVs registered in PG&E's northern California service territory, according to the utility. Bloomberg says about 400 EV owners volunteered for the program.

The BMW initiative will help PG&E evaluate how EV recharging affects the power grid and its own readiness to manage increased demand. PG&E and other utilities also are testing programs that allow EV owners to sell back stored electricity and use vehicle batteries as backup energy sources.

One vehicle-to-grid (V2G) pilot program involving 36 EVs at the Los Angeles Air Force Base generates enough electricity to power about 140 houses, Bloomberg notes. In the past, however, carmakers have been concerned that V2G connections may deteriorate battery performance.