- Heliox, a Siemens business, is now selling a U.S.-made DC fast charger that can send power from an EV back to the grid.
- This allows fleet owners to maximize savings by charging their EVs when electricity is cheap and selling energy when it’s more expensive.
- The new DC fast charger can also keep the lights on when the grid goes down.
A new DC fast charger that’s manufactured and tested in the United States can charge electric cars, keep the lights on during an outage and send power back to the grid. What’s more, it’s also compatible with ISO and SAE standards for bidirectional charging.
Made by Siemens subsidiary Heliox, the new vehicle-to-grid DC fast charger can send up to 44 kilowatts to a connected EV, which is not a lot by modern standards, but it’s worth bearing in mind that this product has been designed specifically for electric buses and electric trucks.
These types of vehicles are usually charged when the drivers take a break or during the night, so having ultra-fast chargers available isn’t a priority. That said, having the ability to utilize the huge batteries that usually power these big commercial EVs to cut some costs is something that fleet owners might be interested in.
And that’s exactly what Heliox’s V2G DC charger can do. It has adjustable AC input settings ranging from 15 to 56 amps, so there’s no need for costly upgrades to a warehouse’s electrical installation. Moreover, it can be set to automatically draw power from the grid when electricity is cheap and send power back to the grid when it’s expensive, essentially using the batteries of the EV fleet as a buffer for energy savings.
Heliox says its 44 kW V2G charger is compliant with the Buy America Act, making it eligible for federal and state-funded projects. It’s also fully compliant with the ISO 15118-20 and SAE J2847 standards, which set specifications for the way EVs and the electrical grid communicate.
Earlier this year, Heliox, along with Hubject, Blue Bird and Accelera by Cummins, announced the first commercial deployment of a vehicle-to-grid solution that’s compliant with international standards. Heliox provided the V2G charger, Hubject was responsible for enabling Plug & Charge functionality, Accelera by Cummins made the electric powertrains, and Blue Bird delivered the electric school buses that could draw power from the grid and send it back.
