Bidirectional Residential Integration for Dispatchable Grid Energy (BRIDGE)
Project Update
The project kicked off in September 2025. Initial activities focused on securing contracts, developing work plans and timelines with sub-recipients, establishing the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), developing the Community Outreach Plan and Project Execution Plans, and developing the initial project execution plan with New Sun Road and our other sub-recipients. Planning is underway for the project’s first webinar and “microsite” (project website) launch, both scheduled for March 2026. During Q4 2025, the team also conducted early planning for the Energy Management Kit (EMK) hardware design and refined the Stellar Platform software integration for V2X capabilities. Additionally, key coordination meetings were held with The Climate Center to finalize the Communication Plan.
The Issue
Current V2X integration into Californian home energy systems faces various barriers, including a lack of data acquisition technologies and detailed engineering designs for the residential market. Market barriers include limited consumer awareness of the technology and the benefits of using V2X for residential applications. Available solutions are costly, have limited V2X capabilities, and are not interoperable across electric vehicle (EV) makes and models. The lack of plug-and-play solutions impedes seamless interaction between EVs, home energy systems, and the grid. Finally, during Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS), which are implemented during extreme weather conditions to reduce wildfire risks, impacted customers have limited options, if any, to provide clean, resilient backup power for their homes. These technical and market barriers prevent EVs from effectively acting as distributed energy resources (DERs).
Project Innovation
The BRIDGE project will develop a cost-effective ($1,000 target price) integrated hardware-software Energy Management Kit (EMK) that leverages existing industry standards to unify various devices under a single interface. The EMK will incorporate AI-driven predictive energy management and cloud integration to optimize V2X usage and will include communication protocols, smart metering, and local energy management capabilities. This approach enables EVs to act as distributed energy resources (DERs) and participate in grid services while ensuring consumer mobility needs are met. The EMK will be designed to be flexible and compatible with various EV chargers, EVs, solar systems, meters, or battery systems allowing users to choose from a variety of options and avoid vendor lock-in. This flexibility also ensures that critical functions can continue without interruption, even when the main grid power supply is unavailable. This will allow homes to become dispatchable assets, supporting grid needs and providing backup power without requiring expensive utility service upgrades.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
This project will increase electricity reliability and lower costs for ratepayers by providing emergency backup during blackouts and storing excess solar energy for grid support. The EMK allows customers to avoid costly grid upgrades by mitigating capacity limitations at the point of common coupling. Additionally, the solution will offer flexibility, allowing customers to choose from a range of competitive hardware vendors. By mitigating capacity limitations at the point of common coupling (PCC), the solution will allow for the addition of bidirectional EV chargers without requiring utility service upgrades and prevents the need for costly grid upgrades, which would otherwise result in upward pressure on rates.
This project will address the lack of a grid-tied, all-in-one plug-and-play UL-listed device by leveraging existing industry standards to unify various devices under a single connectivity framework. This will mitigate fragmentation within the current ecosystem and provide users with a unified view of energy generation and consumption through a single user interface.
Additionally, the solution will integrate with the Market Informed Demand Automation Server (MIDAS) to enable real-time pricing ingestion and dynamically optimize energy use for cost savings. The solution will also offer automated demand response and virtual power plant (VPP) capabilities, transforming homes into grid-responsive assets, and is built to adapt to future regulatory changes, ensuring a future-proof design.
Consumer Appeal
This project will increase awareness and consumer understanding of the resilience, economic, and environmental benefits of residential V2G systems paired with solar and/or storage.
Affordability
The project targets a $1,000 EMK price and uses dynamic energy orchestration to optimize savings through real-time pricing and peak shaving, reducing the overall cost of V2X systems.
Reliability
The project aims to transform homes into grid-responsive assets that provide emergency backup power during outages and PSPS events.
Key Project Members
Subrecipients
Match Partners
