Researchers at the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have released a technical report that documents a series of test procedures designed to enable engineers, designers, and utilities to evaluate the performance of various electric vehicles and hybrids to optimize how they connect with electric utility grids today – and smart grids in the future.

As more vehicles with large batteries come into use and smart grid technology advances, grid operators in the future may be able to take advantage of the two-way flow of power from electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids plugged into utility grids to smooth spikes in demand and improve the reliability of their systems. Evaluating today’s vehicle technologies will advance the goal of transforming the nation’s transportation system to maximize efficiency and use of clean energy.

Engineering vehicles capable of interconnecting to the power system for bi-directional power flow is a key component of emerging “vehicle-to-grid” systems, in which plug-in EVs communicate with the power grid to deliver electricity or modulate their charging rates. The global vehicle-to-grid (V2G) market is expected to grow at a rapid pace, reaching the $2.25 billion mark in 2012 and accelerating to $40.4 billion by 2020, according to a new market analysis from GlobalData.

The NREL report, "Interim Test Procedures for Evaluating Electrical Performance and Grid Integration of Vehicle-to-Grid Applications," documents a series of tests developed to evaluate various V2G capable electric and hybrid electric vehicles to determine their ability to store and provide power to the utility grid and to connect and disconnect from the utility grid, while complying with IEEE standards. The report includes a general discussion on safety requirements and general test setup, as well as an overview of vehicle characteristics and test equipment. Each test scenario discusses the purpose of the test, test procedure, corresponding standards, and how the results are reported.

Download a copy of the report here .