Batteries on wheels: General Motors and SDG&E look at EVs to bolster the electric grid

An increasing number of car makers are staking their futures on millions of drivers buying electric vehicles. They’re also envisioning electric vehicles, or EVs, not as mere modes of transportation but as miniature battery-storage centers on wheels — and that may lead to a different way of thinking about the auto industry and, by extension, the electric grid and the utilities that deliver power to their customers. General Motors and San Diego Gas & Electric recently announced an agreement to look at the feasibility of integrating electric cars and trucks into the power system to help make the grid more resilient and reduce the impacts of blackouts on homeowners. “We connected with GM, one thing led to another and opened it up an opportunity for us to collaborate and figure out ways that we can develop this nascent technology,” said Miguel Romero, SDG&E’s vice president of…

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