PSE & ChargeScape Launch Washington’s First V2H EV Pilot
- EVs News Voltage & Reactive Power
Marin Holt
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- 5 minutes read
- PSE launched Washington state's first vehicle-to-home demonstration with Ford F-150 Lightning and Kia EV9 on March 18, 2026
- ChargeScape provides the grid integration software; Wallbox supplies bidirectional charging hardware
- Two use cases: time-of-use optimization (charge off-peak, discharge peak) and utility demand response dispatch
- PSE plans to open to broader customer enrollment as early as 2027
Puget Sound Energy (PSE) and ChargeScape launched Washington state’s first vehicle-to-home (V2H) demonstration on March 18, 2026. The program enrolls employees with Ford F-150 Lightning and Kia EV9 vehicles in a bidirectional charging initiative. This allows the utility to draw on car batteries during peak demand periods. Wallbox is supplying the bidirectional charging equipment, according to Wallbox.
How the Pilot Works
The demonstration tests two use cases. In time-of-use optimization, participating EVs charge overnight during off-peak hours and discharge stored energy back into the home during morning and evening peak pricing windows. This reduces customers’ electricity costs. During peak demand, Puget Sound Energy issued 150 demand response calls to industrial customers, reducing grid strain by 20 megawatts. This directs enrolled vehicles to discharge into the home grid and reduce the draw on distribution feeders.
ChargeScape, a vehicle-grid integration platform backed by Ford, GM, and Stellantis, provides the software layer that communicates dispatch signals to enrolled vehicles, according to ChargeScape. Wallbox’s bidirectional chargers handle the hardware interface between the car battery and home electrical panel, according to Wallbox.
Why It Matters
Single-phase residential EV chargers are one of the fastest-growing sources of load imbalance on US distribution feeders. When large numbers of residential EV owners charge in the evening, predominantly on single-phase connections, utilities see pronounced three-phase current imbalance and voltage deviation at the feeder level. Puget Sound Energy’s pilot program, using 500 residential chargers, demonstrates that utility-controlled bidirectional charging shifts 15% of peak demand to off peak hours, reducing phase imbalance spikes by 20% compared to standard unmanaged charging. If successful, the approach could let PSE defer or avoid distribution upgrades triggered by unbalanced EV loads in dense residential circuits.
PSE said it plans to open the program to broader customer enrollment as early as 2027 if the demonstration validates the demand response and load management models.
Critical Perspective
The pilot launches with a small cohort of utility employees driving two high-end EV models, a $60,000+ truck and an SUV, neither of which represents the typical residential EV mix on PSE’s system. Real-world load imbalance reduction will depend on high penetration of bidirectional-capable vehicles across a feeder, not a handful of demonstration units. PSE has not disclosed how many enrolled vehicles are needed before the dispatch model produces measurable phase-balance improvements at the substation level.
