Ford Motor Co. and DTE Energy Co. have launched a pilot program with 15 Ford employees in southeast Michigan that compensates these F-150 Lightning owners for transferring their electric vehicle battery power to their home to reduce demand on the electrical grid at high-use times.

The pilot has begun and will run through 2026. It's part of the Dearborn automaker's efforts to highlight energy cost advantages of EVs, and DTE's work in ensuring a reliable and resilient grid.

The Ford Home Power Management allows EV customers who also install a Ford Charging Station Pro, Home Integration System and Home Power Management software to charge their Lightning with electricity during off-peak hours when power is cheaper, typically overnight, and then use that stored energy to power their home during peak hours when electricity is more expensive, typically the afternoon and early evening.

Several states support EV owners' ability to leverage these systems. It usually requires an agreement with the homeowner's utility to turn on the function.

Ford estimates customers can save up to an estimated $42 per month or around $500 per year. The DTE Vehicle-to-Home Managed Charging Program pilot goes one step beyond that to incentivize pilot participants to allow it to have the ability to request this function to turn on based on system demand.

DTE sends notifications to ChargeScape, a Ford-backed vehicle-to-grid integration platform, to schedule the switch. Customers can limit how low they want their battery charge to go. The hope is the program one day will be opened up to the public.

"As DTE sees the grid under stress or strain, (it) would request for those vehicles to behave in a particular way, meaning, probably provide power for the house, and take the house offline," Ryan O'Gorman​, Ford's senior manager of energy services business strategy and delivery, said during a briefing. "Some of these events can be seen day ahead or day of ... And so this will be a big opportunity to learn on these 15 vehicles within our backyard."

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