US postal trucks could store renewable grid energy in future

Someone at the PJM Interconnection had a brainwave and came up with the idea of having postal trucks, school buses and garbage trucks connected to the grid in America. How will this help? Well, electric vehicles like these could help store grid in their lithium batteries when not in use. With wind and solar energy being dependent on weather, steps like these would help increase grid reliability.

In existing grids, the energy generated must be simultaneously used. Using vehicle batteries to store this energy instead for use later could help increase the applicable use of renewable energy. This will also help increase a balance between load and generation. The struggling US postal service will also reap benefits if all its 144,000 vehicles were plugged in for 12 hours overnight. This will increase income by $237 million to $378 million a year and if 3000 postal vehicles go electric, the government will save $1,500 per vehicle in gas costs each annually! If all goes well, these fleets will be energy store-houses in future.
[Inhabitat]