Car maker General Motors said it was starting its own energy storage business for businesses as well as consumers.
It is called GM Energy and is “a holistic ecosystem of energy management products and services.”
These include stationary storage, solar products, microgrid solutions and hydrogen fuel cells.
GM stated it has already enrolled electric vehicle (EV) customers in managed charging programmes with utilities across four US states and growing.
Its home and commercial battery packs will reportedly rely on the same sort of batteries as those used in the automaker’s electric cars. They will be put into large stationary packs to store energy to reduce the need for electricity during times of peak demand.
Several large-scale companies in the US have agreed to work with GM Energy to provide solar power and bi-directional charging solutions.
For example, an agreement with construction company Graniterock entails identifying fleet electrification opportunities. It includes EVs, electric vehicle service equipment (EVSE), battery energy storage systems and vehicle-to-grid services.
The Ultium Home, Ultium Commercial and Ultium Charge 360 divisions of the new GM unit will offer energy management for home, commercial and EV customers. That will range from bi-directional charging to vehicle-to-home (V2H) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) applications. Stationary storage, solar products, software applications, cloud management tools, microgrid solutions and hydrogen fuel cells will also be on offer.
