Vehicle-to-grid, regulated deregulation, and the energy conversion imaginary

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

Automobility and grid electricity are pervasive forms of energy conversion infrastructure that have existed as discrete entities for most of their history. Periodically, however, actors have looked to electric vehicles as a means of solving sociotechnical problems in the business of electricity. In the early days of electricity, systems builders saw electric vehicles as a way of creating demand and storing electricity. Around the turn of the millennium, some analysts believed that electric vehicles mandated by the state of California could be repurposed to supply high-cost ancillary services that the state had unbundled from formerly unified generation, transmission, and distribution services and commodified through market-oriented deregulation. Known as vehicle-to-grid, this imagined massive system of distributed energy storage and power generation was later perceived as an important means of managing the integration of renewable energy conversion systems into the grid. This paper argues that vehicle-to-grid was a product of contradictory public policy impulses that illustrate the challenges neoliberal dirigisme (quasi-planning) faced in renovating legacy energy conversion systems in dynamic environmental and social conditions.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationElectrical Conquest
Subtitle of host publicationNew Approaches to the History of Electrification
EditorsW. Bernard Carlson, Erik M. Conway
Place of PublicationCham
PublisherSpringer
Pages251-280
Number of pages30
ISBN (Electronic)9783031445910
ISBN (Print)9783031445903
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Jan 2024

Publication series

NameArchemides (ARIM)
PublisherSpringer
Volume67

Keywords

  • electric vehicle
  • electrical grid
  • vehicle-to-grid

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