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PG&E’s San Ramon facilities have been abuzz over the past month with two major media events showcasing new technological developments aimed at collectively addressing growing power demands and mitigating wildfire risk.
The company unveiled its model “Power House” on April 17 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, tour and demonstration of bidirectional charging at 3400 Crow Canyon Road, followed by the debut of its Continuous Monitoring System at 3301 Crow Canyon Road May 1.
Last month’s event drew a crowd of media, tech executives and PG&E representatives to explore the fully electrified model house and watch a live demonstration as its power was shifted off the grid and to backup energy generated by a Tesla Cybertruck.
Following its debut, the PowerHouse is set to act as “both a model home and a living laboratory,” according to PG&E officials, and a tangible example of the future of “smart” homes and equipment.
“Seeing is believing,” said Mike Delaney, Vice President, Strategy and Innovation at PG&E. “The PG&E PowerHouse demonstrates an easy and enjoyable electrified future for our customers. We are tenaciously working every day to eliminate the barriers of cost, time, and complexities so that our customers can make this transition free of hassle and stress.”
The event preceded an April 20 announcement that PG&E and Tesla had entered into a partnership as part of the former’s V2X — “vehicle to everything” — residential pilot program.
“Electric vehicles can do more than move people—they can help power homes and support the grid,” said Jason Glickman, executive vice president of strategy and growth for PG&E. “By welcoming Tesla into our residential V2X program, we’re expanding customer choice while making California’s grid more flexible, resilient, and affordable.”
Overall, the week marked a crucial moment in the advancement of bidirectional charging, according to PG&E and Tesla officials — the ability for electric vehicles to both charge and be charged by power sources at homes — which is now a reality, at least for some.
Under the partnership with Tesla, PG&E customers who have Cybertrucks can use the vehicles with Tesla’s Powershare gateway and wall connector to power their homes in the event of emergencies or power grid straining events, and to export power to the grid in exchange for cash.
“Powershare Grid Support enables Tesla vehicles to strengthen our electricity system, while earning money for EV owners,” said Colby Hastings, Senior Director of Tesla’s Residential Energy business. “Our unique integrated architecture makes vehicle-to-grid dramatically cheaper than alternatives, and PG&E’s V2X program will accelerate customer adoption.”
Tesla’s Cybertruck is the latest vehicle to be part of PG&E’s V2X pilot program and the first in the state, making the vehicle the only one with which Californians can currently use the program and technology.
However, elsewhere the program is also available for Ford F150 Lightning trucks made after 2022 with additional power sharing equipment from Ford as well as a number of Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GM truck and SUV models, which are compatible with separate equipment from GM.
PG&E invited media back to the northeastern corner of San Ramon May 1 to kick off Wildfire Preparedness Month with the unveiling of its Continuous Monitoring Center.
“The threat of wildfire requires more than incremental improvement, it demands a different kind of vigilance,” said Mark Quinlan, PG&E’s Senior Vice President of Wildfire, Emergency and Operations.
“With the Continuous Monitoring Center, we’re adding another layer of protection, using predictive intelligence from millions of data points across our system, to spot problems forming before they become emergencies,” he continued. “The results are clear: faster detection, quicker action, a safer grid and real cost savings for the customers we serve. We are also actively sharing what we’ve learned with utilities and industry peers around the world.”
The system uses machine learning to monitor the electric system and to spot and flag potential risks and anomalies. While the center made its debut at the start of the month, PG&E officials said the technology had already been in use over the past year, during which it helped prevent 17 potential fires in high-risk areas, reduced outage response times, and avoided 200,000 hours of unplanned outages.
The Continuous Monitoring Center condenses that technology into one place, “allowing for faster analysis, stronger coordination and more proactive risk detection to further enhance safety and reliability,” according to PG&E.
“When you listen to your assets, it’s like listening to a person,” said Craig Kurtz, senior director of continuous monitoring. “You can’t really understand somebody by just looking at them. You listen to them – and if you listen to them all day and all night, you really get to understand them. That’s what we’re doing here at the Continuous Monitoring Center.”
Over the weekend, power outages throughout Contra Costa County and the greater Bay Area were implemented in an effort to prevent wildfires amid blustery wind conditions. As of Monday evening, a number of outages in the area remained in effect, according to the PG&E Outage Map.
