The California Energy Commission (CEC) has authorized $2.5 million for the first phase of a two-phase, $27 million Responsive, Easy Charging Products with Dynamic Signals (REDWDS) grant for the Rural Electrification and Charging Technology (REACT) project to deploy electric vehicle (EV) charging technology on farms and at other rural locations responsive to dynamic grid signals.
Incentives from the grant will enable customers to transition their on-farm fleets to the Monarch MK-V, a fully electric, driver-optional, smart tractor, and other electric vehicles by reducing the cost to deploy charging infrastructure while responding to dynamic prices and participating in demand response programs will increase customers' financial returns on investing in electrification.
The grant will also help to fund Gridtractor and Monarch software systems and customer success teams. The teams will assist customers manage charging in response to grid signals while prioritizing the work of their tractors and vehicles.
Vehicle-to Everything and charge management technology developed by consortium partners under On Farm Mobile Microgrids, a second CEC-funded project, will enable customers to not only charge at the most beneficial times but also export power to the grid or local loads when energy is limited or expensive.
The consortium will not only help customers respond to the existing slate of rates and programs but also work to increase and improve them. Valley Clean Energy, whose AgFIT pilot led regulators to initiate a statewide expansion of dynamic rates, will engage with Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs) to help develop programs for their members and participating customers.
"In the last two years, Monarch Tractor has deployed more than 400 MK-Vs, resulting in the offset of more than 850 tons of CO2 emissions across 42,000 hours of tractor operations," said Praveen Penmetsa, CEO and co-founder of Monarch Tractor. "But, larger-scale deployments require more charging infrastructure and this grant will help us to significantly improve customers' economics of adoption."
"As power demand increases with the transition to EFV, REACT will help to ensure that new and existing load is responsive to grid conditions and a net contributor to California's reliability, decarbonization and affordability goals," said David Meyers, Founder/CEO of Gridtractor.
