Leveraging electric vehicles as a resiliency solution for residential backup power during outages

Climate change exacerbates power outages that pose significant risks to local economies and endanger citizens. Electric vehicles (EVs) and vehicle-to-home (V2H) technology can provide backup power to meet residential demand during an outage. This study simulates the V2H system across nine US climate regions, over four seasons, and during short-term, long-term, and extremely severe power loss events. We propose metrics to evaluate EV-enabled household energy and mobility resilience. Results show that contemporary EV models, even with a 50% state of charge, can meet residential energy needs during a 12-h outage in mild seasons like spring and autumn, except for communities in the Midwest due to lower temperatures and greater household energy needs. The resilience of the household energy system during long-term outages is affected by the start time of the outage, heating and cooling power requirements, and daily travel needs. During extremely severe power outages, EVs can protect residents from cold stress for multiple days. Our findings provide insights into smart energy management for integrated residential and EV systems under extreme weather conditions.