Bidirectional Charging Project Series

For Canada to achieve its emissions reduction targets, increased adoption of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) is critical. However, perceived barriers, including high battery costs, issues of range anxiety, charger availability, and impact on the electricity grid, hinder the uptake of ZEVs. Technologies such as bidirectional charging, also called vehicle-to-everything (V2X), can help address some of these barriers. V2X capability allows energy from the ZEV's onboard battery to provide auxiliary power to specific loads and buildings or to be sold back to electric utilities. V2X technology can result in a revenue stream for ZEV owners for providing backup power to the grid, significantly reducing emissions by offsetting power generation from non-renewable power generators, and providing flexible solutions to handle peak demand for electric utilities. Although there is interest in how a ZEV battery could power a home, current and prospective ZEV owners in Canada need more knowledge and exposure to V2X to help move from interest to implementation. Many utilities have not yet considered V2X benefits, potential programs, and other strategies that would help meet ZEV users' interests, increase the adoption of ZEVs, and complement their own needs, even though utilities will be the stakeholders most impacted by transportation electrification. The absence of successful V2X demonstrations in Canada has led to a general unawareness about the subject, and V2X demonstrations and research projects are necessary to identify needs, knowledge, and lessons learned for all stakeholders. This series of projects aims to build knowledge and awareness around the positive attributes of V2X to all market segments related to ZEVs, with a specific focus on light-duty ZEV owners, electric utilities, and all levels of government. Activities within this series of projects include: 1. Needs assessments around V2X and ZEV adoption for residential and commercial users. 2. Real-world V2X demonstrations to show potential emissions, cost savings, and grid benefits. 3. Best practice guides for V2X adoption for electric utilities and jurisdictions in Canada, helping to identify innovative V2X programs, financial/environmental benefits, and campaign strategies to increase the positive uptake of ZEVs. 4. Jurisdictional roadmap studies identifying the pathways to V2X technology and program adoption.

Rising to the Upper Tiers: Affordability and Emissions-driven Energy Code Compliance

Adopting the 2020 National Building Code (NBC 2020) brings new compliance requirements and opportunities for energy advisors (EAs) and builders. This project aims to reduce barriers to meeting new and forthcoming code compliance for residential buildings by leveraging the Volta SNAP energy modelling platform. It will simplify code compliance and adoption, ensuring that designers and decision-makers have powerful tools to build affordable, low-emission housing in Canada. <b> This project has the following key objectives: </b> 1. Simplify integrated design processes (IDPs) to provide deeper insights for low-rise housing, producing affordable pathways to higher-tier performance targets. 2. Assist with prescriptive code compliance and highlight untapped cost and energy-saving measures. 3. Develop and/or integrate with costing databases to ensure that low-cost and affordable solutions are highlighted. 4. Automate and simplify calculations around operational and embodied emissions. 5. Produce educational materials to inform potential homeowners of the benefits of high-performance housing.

Supporting Electrification Policy in the GTHA: Facilitating Stakeholder Coordination Through the Integrated Design Process

The electrification of buildings and transportation in the GTHA requires better coordination among stakeholders in the low-rise building sector to eliminate barriers to electrification. Without cross-sectoral approaches, building, transportation, and electrical policy decisions could strain the capacity of the utility grid rather than provide capacity support — exacerbating barriers to electrification. This project aims to demonstrate how coordinated planning led by low-rise building sector stakeholders could reduce electrification barriers and infrastructure costs. Through integrated design process (IDP) activities evaluating example grid-aware, low-rise electrification scenarios, workshop stakeholders will explore how different building code compliance paths, combined with smart loads, bidirectional EV charging, DERs and other measures, could increase the existing grid’s load factor and reduce the need for additional asset capacity. Participating stakeholders will be primed to make small but impactful policy and process changes leveraged to simplify electrification and reduce emissions significantly. <b> This project has the following key objectives: </b> 1. Engage key low-rise building energy and EV stakeholders across the GTHA through a series of IDP workshops. 2. Identify and evaluate key electrification pain points and desired outcomes from the workshops. 3. Design a stakeholder-led analytical process by which to perform the example scenario modelling during each workshop. 4. Collaboratively disseminate and act on the project results (e.g., code consultation and adoption, on-the-ground engineering practice, increased cross-sectoral collaboration and communication).