The country’s first residential vehicle-to-grid (V2G) distributed power plant is currently running—and is being powered by Ford F-150 Lightning trucks. The idea to send energy from an electric vehicle to the grid gained momentum in 2009 when Ford and American Electric Power in Ohio launched a pilot with hybrid vehicles. Later, General Motors experimented by using another hybrid, the Volt. EVs with larger lithium-ion packs have also been tried, predominantly with commercial fleets. But the production of EVs specifically designed for bidirectional charging changed the game.

Sunrun, which provides home energy storage and solar solutions, and the Maryland utility Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) launched the pilot in July. It ran through September. During the pilot test, three BGE customers were able to send stored energy from their trucks’ batteries to the grid during peak evening demand by using Ford and Sunrun’s Home Integration System to connect their vehicles. The customers were compensated up to $1,000 for the season, based on how much energy they dispatched to the grid between 5:00 and 9:00 p.m. on weekdays.

One participant in the pilot—Morgan Grove of Baltimore, a member of the Baltimore Commission on Sustainability—said he bought a Ford F-150 Lightning partly to provide backup power at home during an outage. “Now, I can also earn money by sending energy directly to the grid,” he said.

“This demonstrates the critical role that vehicle batteries can play in powering the nation’s grid,” said Mary Powell, Sunrun’s CEO and director. She underscored the income opportunities for EV owners and the support this project contributes to grid reliability by helping utilities meet peak electricity demand.

With the federal solar tax credit ending this year, this can offset customer costs, and with increasing energy demand, it can provide additional load capacity. According to Divesh Gupta, director of clean energy solutions at BGE, the trucks “make our energy system more reliable, more efficient and even help lower electricity costs for customers.”

The program has also garnered support from Ford, with Bill Crider, senior director of global charging and energy services at Ford, calling it a “win-win” for customers and utilities. “Enabling customers to not only power their homes, but send power directly back to the grid in times of need helps customers with financial incentives, utilities with more power capacity and society through more grid reliability and sustainable energy practices.”

Ford’s Home Backup Power system includes the Ford Charge Station Pro and the Home Integration System, the first commercially available bidirectional system in the United States.