Demand response and vehicle-to-grid: What to track

Smart meters, tariffs and whether V2G finally scales

What this tab covers The attributes worth tracking regularly, with the latest value, the direction of travel and why each matters.

For flexibility, track enrolment and delivered performance rather than state of health. In India, watch smart-meter rollout and how states set ToD tariffs; elsewhere, watch market access for aggregators and V2G standards.

Category	Attribute	Latest	Trend	Why it matters
Techno-economic	Cost of capacity versus peakers and batteries (LCOS equivalent)	About 40% below utility battery and 60% below gas peaker (US, 2030 representative utility, DOE 2023); battery projects about USD 150/kWh (2024)¹⁴	↗ improving	The core investment case; falling battery costs narrow the advantage.
Techno-economic	Enrolment and delivered performance (state of health equivalent)	About 100 GW of demand response used globally (2024) vs 500 GW net zero need by 2030³⁴	↗ improving	Opt-outs and fatigue erode capacity the way fade erodes a battery; growth is far behind IEA's path.
Supply chain	Enabling hardware cost and rollout	India: about 28% of sanctioned consumer smart meters installed (5.53 of 19.79 crore, 30 June 2026, calculated); bidirectional AC chargers under USD 1,500⁸¹⁴	↗ improving	Meters and chargers, not minerals, decide how fast flexibility scales.
Market	Market access and ancillary saturation	2 of 6 FERC-jurisdictional US markets admitted VPPs that inject power (Aug 2023); ancillary services historically under 5% of US wholesale value¹	↗ improving	Wholesale access widens revenue beyond utility programmes, but ancillary pools are shallow.
Regulatory	Tariff design and compliance	India ToD: solar hours at least 20% cheaper; C&I peak at least 20% dearer (Rules notified 14 June 2023)⁵	↗ improving	State regulators set the actual spreads; wider spreads raise the value of shifting.
Regulatory	Interoperability and cybersecurity	ISO 15118-20 (2022) implemented inconsistently; interoperability very low⁸	→ stable	Common standards decide whether aggregators can scale across vehicle and charger brands.
Environmental	Emissions effect of shifted load	India curtailed about 2.3 TWh of solar (late May to Dec 2025)⁷	↘ worsening	Stands in for carbon payback: shifting into curtailed solar hours gives the clearest emissions gain.
Technology	V2G battery wear evidence	1.7 to 5.8 percentage points extra loss over 10 years (cell ageing models, aggregator co-authored, 2025); warranties 70% after 8 to 10 years⁸¹⁰	↗ improving	Fleet data are needed before carmakers drop throughput limits and warranty caveats.
Market	VPP and V2G commercial scale	37.5 GW VPP flexible capacity in North America (2025, up 13.7%); 22 V2G-capable models; China targets 5,000 V2G facilities by end-2027⁸¹⁶	↗ improving	Shows whether flexibility is moving from pilots to mass market.

Sources

Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Virtual Power Plants US Department of Energy, 2023
Demand Response (tracking page; undated, latest data early 2023) International Energy Agency, 2023
Electricity 2026: Flexibility International Energy Agency, 2026
Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 41: Power Tariff System (answer by Ministry of Power, 20 July 2023) Parliament of India, Lok Sabha, 2023
Beyond capacity: why India's power system must get flexible (chapter: 2025 saw significant solar curtailment to preserve system stability) Ember, 2026
Global EV Outlook 2026: Vehicle-to-grid technology International Energy Agency, 2026
German study shows V2G has minor impact on battery degradation (trade press on a study co-authored by RWTH Aachen and the aggregator The Mobility House; not peer reviewed as far as found) New Mobility News, 2025
Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 943: Delay in smart meter installation (answer by Ministry of Power, 27 July 2026) Ministry of Power, Government of India, 2026
Virtual power plant capacity expands 13.7% year over year to reach 37.5 GW (press release on market research) Wood Mackenzie, 2025