GM OnStar Starts Pilot Program to Manage Charging in Energy Grid

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OnStar has started a pilot program to balance the power stored from solar cells with energy from the electric grid. The system can look at the load electric grid and the power stored in the cell's batteries to know which source to use.

A company called TimberRock Energy Solutions is working on the project with OnStar. TimberRock's role is monitoring the amount of energy stored by solar charging stations and the amount of energy available on the electrical grid. The system is also smart enough to look at the energy grid and determine the most profitable times to sell electricity back based on demand. A fleet of four Chevy Volt's will use the system as well. 

“The future of electric vehicle charging will be a marriage of renewable energy and battery storage as we look to address the intermittency of renewable solar and wind power. This project supports GM’s goal of using all factors of the charging equation: electric vehicles, solar power, and battery storage," said Rob Threlkeld, GM manager of renewable energy.

The system can start, stop and modulate the amount of power being sent to the car being charged

The future use of the technology is thought that to be that people could plug-in their car in at home, and it would intelligently know when to charge itself and when to sell back energy from its batteries.

“Down the line, this could really incentivize solar charging for EV drivers.” said Paul Pebbles, GM's head of its smart grid efforts.