NYSERDA Awards $6 Million to Seven Vehicle-to-Grid Projects Turning New York EVs Into Flexible Grid Assets

EVs Infrastructure & Grid Connection News
Marin Holt
May 21, 2026
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5 minutes read

Total VGI awards: $6 million
Largest award (Roundtrip EV Solutions): $1.6 million
Wireless charging (Electreon, Buffalo): $1 million
Managed charging (Optiwatt, Long Island): $600,000

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) awarded more than $6 million on May 21, 2026 to seven projects that turn electric vehicles into flexible grid assets across New York. The awards, made under NYSERDA’s Vehicle Grid Integration Program, fund bidirectional charging, managed charging, and wireless charging demonstrations that let EVs feed power back to buildings and the grid or shift charging away from peak-demand hours. Roundtrip EV Solutions received the largest award, more than $1.6 million, to demonstrate bidirectional fast charging in electric refuse trucks for two Ulster County municipal fleets.

Where the Money Went

Electreon Wireless: $1 million for wireless charging of electric shuttles in Buffalo, cutting interconnection costs and peak demand.
Gravity: nearly $1 million for a bidirectional charging platform that lowers station installation costs and returns power to Manhattan buildings.
Energy One: nearly $1 million to pair electric refrigerated trailers with thermal storage at the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center in the Bronx.
New York University: more than $700,000 for EV planning software that helps utilities pinpoint distribution upgrades.
Optiwatt: more than $600,000 for a managed-charging demonstration on Long Island that balances neighborhood loads.
Pvilion: $500,000 for portable, solar-powered off-grid charging for construction and farm equipment in Peekskill and Troy.

Critical Perspective

NYSERDA is spreading just over $6 million across seven vehicle-to-grid demonstrations, with the largest single award, about $1.6 million, going to bidirectional fast charging for two Ulster County refuse-truck fleets. Bidirectional charging has a long history of pilots that never scaled: Nissan and Fermata Energy ran V2G trials for years before hardware cost and warranty limits kept the technology stuck in demonstration. California’s earlier vehicle-grid push through the CPUC funded similar managed-charging pilots that produced useful operating data but few permanent tariffs, leaving utilities without a durable way to pay drivers for grid services. With awards this small spread across seven separate technologies, is New York funding a path to a real V2G market, or another round of demonstrations that end when the grant does?

Why It Matters

New York expects EV charging to add gigawatts of new load over the next decade, and charging concentrated at peak hours forces expensive distribution upgrades that every ratepayer helps fund. Vehicle-grid integration turns that load into a resource: bidirectional and managed charging let utilities shift, pause, or reverse EV demand, deferring grid upgrades and holding down costs. Each award targets a specific barrier (interconnection expense, installation cost, or peak load) that has slowed high-power charging. “NYSERDA is proud to partner with forward-thinking companies pushing the boundaries of vehicle-to-grid innovation and demonstrating new ways to manage energy more intelligently,” NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said. The demonstrations run in real municipal fleets, food-distribution hubs, and transit shuttles, giving utilities operating data on how EV batteries behave as grid assets before the next wave of fleet electrification arrives.