Nissan is developing a system that will allow companies to regulate their electricity bills using the batteries of Nissan Leaf EVs used by their employees to commute to work.

The Japanese carmaker has already carried out a successful early field test of the “Vehicle-To-Building” program, which allows up to six Nissan Leafs to be connected to a building’s power distribution board.

The idea is simple: charging is phased during the day so at peak hours, when electricity is most expensive, the building draws power from the cars. When electricity is cheaper it flows the other way. Nissan says that the cars are fully charged by the end of the working day for their owners to drive home.

“Vehicle-to-Building” has been in use since July at the Nissan Advanced Technology Center in Atsugi City, Japan . By controlling the charging time of the EVs , the facility benefited from a reduction of 25.6KW during peak summer periods.

Nissan says the program had no impact on the workers’ daily commute, or their vehicles. As a result of the program, Nissan recorded a 2.5-percent reduction of electrical power use during peak hours, which corresponds to a saving of nearly 500,000 Yen per year ($4,864) in electrical power cost.

Nissan pointed out that it will further test and refine the “Vehicle-To-Building” system, which is a development of the “LEAF-to-Home” system. “LEAF-to-Home” power units provide an uninterrupted flow of electricity stored in the high-capacity Leaf batteries to residential homes. The carmaker hopes the system will encourage Leaf owners to charge their cars with electricity generated during the night, when demand is low, or sourced from solar panels.

By Dan Mihalascu

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