The Mobility House and Wallbox have successfully installed and interconnected a Quasar 2, Wallbox’s bidirectional charger in a San Diego County home, representing the first residential bidirectional charger interconnected in the County and an important step toward the broader adoption of bidirectional charging in residential settings in the U.S. The homeowners can now use the unit to charge and discharge their Kia EV9 in a grid parallel system with export. This means the system works with the utility grid and doesn't require islanding before providing backup power to the customer. The power from the car’s battery can be used to reduce electricity bills by offsetting the home’s consumption (vehicle to home, or V2H), and generate revenue by exporting power to the grid (vehicle to grid, or V2G). The unit was installed by Wallbox installation partner COIL.
“This is an important milestone in the commercialization of vehicle-to-everything services for electric vehicle drivers,” said Russell Vare, VP of VGI, The Mobility House North America. “Many people don’t realize you need an interconnection approval with the utility, even if you only manage your home energy and never export power beyond the meter. We have accomplished this, and have gone one step further to enable the system to export power and realize the value of Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G).”
Russell Vare, VP Vehicle Grid Integration, Mobility House North America, inspects the metered interconnection at the residential owner's home.
The Mobility House worked directly with SDG&E to coordinate the interconnection approval, permitting, installation, and inspection, completing the full process from initial utility outreach to “Permission to Operate” in less than six months. As the first interconnection in the service territory, the project surfaced many practical learnings on permit classification, panel compatibility, utility coordination, and the placard requirements that apply to bidirectional systems. SDG&E plans to document the as-is interconnection process in anticipation of increased residential bidirectional applications.
The installation is the first instance of a Quasar 2 integrated with The Mobility House’s Cascade EV Aggregator platform. Cascade enables the vehicle owner to reduce the cost of EV charging, and earn revenue from utility programs such as demand response, time of use, and dynamic rates. The aggregator receives utility signals and creates charge plans that schedule charging and discharging for optimal savings and revenue potential, within state-of-charge readiness parameters set by the driver. Deployments like this are expected to play a key role in scaling bidirectional charging and enabling electric vehicles to support both households and the grid.
"This milestone demonstrates how bidirectional charging is turning electric vehicles into fully integrated energy assets. With solutions like Quasar 2 and through our collaboration with The Mobility House, we are enabling homes to interact dynamically with the grid, unlocking new value for drivers while supporting a more flexible and resilient energy system."
Enric Asunción, CEO and co-founder,
Wallbox
About The Mobility House
The Mobility House is shaping the zero emissions future of energy and mobility. Our resilient charging technology makes EV charging reliable and flexible, and provides drivers the freedom of zero emissions, zero cost charging. We integrate flexible charging with energy systems to stabilize the electrical grid and free it from fossil fuels. Across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and North America, The Mobility House currently manages more than 2,700 EV fleet charging facilities, charges hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles, and trades power from more than 180 MWh of energy storage. Visit MobilityHouse.us
About Wallbox
Wallbox is a global technology company, dedicated to changing the way the world uses energy. Wallbox creates advanced electric vehicle charging and energy management systems that redefine the relationship between users and the network. Wallbox goes beyond charging electric vehicles to give users the power to control their consumption, save money and live more sustainably. Wallbox offers a complete portfolio of charging and energy management solutions for residential, semi-public, and public use in more than 100 countries around the world. Founded in 2015 in Barcelona, where the company’s headquarters are located, Wallbox currently has offices across Europe, Asia, and America. For more information, visit www.wallbox.com