NEW HOPE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electric Frog Company, a climate-tech start-up, announced today that it has provided free use of a Nissan LEAF electric vehicle (EV) to the Burrillville Wastewater Treatment Facility in Rhode Island, in a first use of a customer vehicle to support the New England electric grid. When not in use by Burrillville employees the EV is plugged into a state-of-the-art Fermata Energy bidirectional charger and monitored by their energy management software to transfer power back to the grid on 24-hour notice to help meet peak demand.
“This is a unique effort to use an EV to help supply grid power on call,” said John Isberg, Vice President of Customer Sales and Solutions at National Grid. “We welcome this significant step toward a smarter, cleaner and more reliable electric grid of the future.” National Grid, which serves large parts of New England and New York, offers an incentive in Rhode Island and Massachusetts for customer batteries under their ConnectedSolutions program. The incentive amount is based on the amount of power delivered to the grid during times of peak demand on hot summer afternoons.
“My team is excited to try out the electric car and I am pleased to be part of this innovative pilot,” said Michael Emond, Superintendent of the Burrillville Wastewater Treatment Facility.
“This is the future,” said Brent Alderfer, Founder and CEO of the Electric Frog Company. “It is very exciting to be able to offer an economic electric vehicle to the customer and electric grid reliability to the utility. This is the long-promised ‘vehicle to grid’ advantage at work for the consumer and the environment.”
“Through this partnership we will make EVs affordable for all drivers and we are confident that we will accelerate the adoption of EVs along with the transition to renewable energy on the grid,” said David Slutzky, Founder and CEO of Fermata Energy. “We are excited to see our V2X operations at work in Burrillville.”
To allow charging of the electric vehicle for ordinary use and discharge power back to the utility grid on demand, Electric Frog partnered with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) market leader Fermata Energy to install its bidirectional charger and proprietary vehicle-to-everything (V2X) software to manage charging of the EV at the Burrillville facility and deliver power on call to the utility.
About Electric Frog Company
Electric Frog Company is a climate-tech company accelerating the use of electric vehicles and electrification technologies for customer and climate-change benefits. The company was founded by Brent Alderfer, the energy entrepreneur who co-founded long-time renewable energy developer Community Energy, Inc. www.electricfrog.com. Twitter (@electricfrogco), LinkedIn, and Facebook.
About Fermata Energy
Fermata Energy’s turnkey V2X system makes it possible for EVs to combat climate change, increase energy resilience, and reduce energy costs. For more information, visit www.fermataenergy.com, and follow us on Twitter (@FermataEnergy), LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram (@fermata__energy).
About National Grid Company
National Grid (NYSE: NGG) is an electricity, natural gas, and clean energy delivery company serving more than 20 million people through our networks in New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. National Grid is transforming our electricity and natural gas networks with smarter, cleaner, and more resilient energy solutions to meet the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As part of our commitment to a clean energy future, National Grid is a Principal Partner for COP26, the UN global climate summit, which will be located in the UK in November 2021.
For more information, please visit our website, follow us on Twitter, watch us on YouTube, like us on Facebook, and find our photos on Instagram.
