Automotive giant General Motors has launched a new division providing energy storage and energy management solutions.
The new division, GM Energy, will provide three initial products. New residential and commercial & industrial (V&I) energy storage and management solutions, Ultium Home and Ultium Commercial, join Ultium Charge 360, its existing EV charging solution. Ultium is the firm’s proprietary battery co-developed with LG Chem.
The solutions are designed to provide customers with more seamless and integrated energy management and help improve grid resiliency, the company said. All three will come under General Motors’ Energy Services Cloud, which houses data and energy management tools.
It said that a growing number of large companies across the US have already signed on to receive the solutions and collaborate with the company to expand its offering.
One of those is solar energy company SunPower, which will work with General Motors to develop a home energy system consisting of integrated EV and battery solutions, solar PV panels and home energy storage. This will enable drivers to use vehicle-to-home (V2H) technology to power their homes with their EV battery, providing backup or peak shaving power.
SunPower will also be the preferred installer for the home energy system and offer customers the opportunity to add solar to their homes. The home energy system launch in 2024 will coincide with the launch of the Chevrolet Silverado EV, expected to begin production in fall 2023.
Another collaboration is with California investor-owned utility PG&E around V2H applications, previously reported by Energy-Storage.news. The scheme will allow customers to use their EV batteries to provide backup power for essential home needs during power outages. After initial lab tests, the two companies expect to be able to offer this to a subset of PG&E customers in 2023.
GM Energy is also working with utility Con Edison, construction firm Graniterock and member-owned utility New Hampshire Electric Cooperative (NHEC) to help deliver energy solutions to customers.
“The reliability of the US electrical power grid has never been more important,” said Travis Hester, vice president of GM EV Growth Operations. “GM Energy has the opportunity to help deliver sustainable energy products and services that can help mitigate the effect of power outages and provide customers with resilient and cost-effective energy management.”
GM Energy has launched with its own website, where it describes itself as an ‘electric ecosystem’.
