Maryland Funds 10 Bidirectional EVs for Emergency Power at Four Baltimore Resiliency Hubs

Maryland is awarding $950,000 to the Baltimore City Office of Sustainability for a pilot built around four Community Resiliency Hubs and a fleet of 10 bidirectional electric vehicles. The state says the vehicles are intended to provide backup electricity for vulnerable residents during emergencies.¹

The unusual part is not simply that the vehicles can send power back out of their batteries. Baltimore’s resiliency hubs are community emergency-response sites, not ordinary charging locations, and the city already uses solar and stationary batteries as part of that resilience strategy.²

Baltimore’s current program page says 17 partner organizations participate in the hub network. The sites can provide emergency gathering space, reliable power for essential devices, supplies, food and water, and temperature-controlled medication storage. The city also says four hubs already have solar and battery backup.²

Those four existing battery-equipped hubs should not be assumed to be the four sites in the new EV pilot. Maryland’s award announcement does not name the participating hubs, and Baltimore’s current hub page does not identify the new pilot sites.¹²

Bidirectional does not automatically mean V2G

Maryland describes the 10 vehicles as bidirectional, but that alone does not establish a vehicle-to-grid project. Bidirectional equipment can move electricity out of an EV battery, while the final destination and operating design can vary: power can be routed to building loads, isolated critical loads, or the utility grid depending on the hardware, controls and interconnection arrangement.¹³⁴

That distinction matters here because the state announcement does not identify the vehicle models, charger or inverter hardware, transfer or islanding equipment, output power, vendor, procurement status or implementation schedule. It also does not say whether the project will export electricity to Baltimore Gas and Electric’s grid.¹

The award therefore should not yet be described as a V2G pilot, a V2B project, a microgrid or a whole-building backup system. The public description establishes the intended emergency-backup role, but not the topology that will deliver it.¹³⁴

Maryland does already have a separate regulatory track for grid-connected bidirectional EV resources. A 2025 Maryland Public Service Commission report says BGE submitted proposals for virtual-power-plant and V2G pilots under the state’s DRIVE Act on July 1, 2025. The report says that implementation supports interconnections for storage that exports energy, including mobile storage and bidirectional distributed-energy resources that may operate in parallel with the grid.³

The PSC also established Case No. 9761 as the repository for DRIVE Act implementation filings, and its 2024 order notes that the law’s definition of a renewable on-site generating system can include bidirectional EV service equipment.⁴

That background shows Maryland was already working on V2G policy before the Baltimore award. It does not establish that the four-hub project uses the DRIVE Act pathway or that it will export to the grid.³⁴

For now, the most consequential missing details are practical ones: which four hubs will participate, what vehicles and bidirectional hardware will be selected, what loads the vehicles are expected to support, whether BGE interconnection is involved, and when the system is expected to be commissioned.¹²

Those design disclosures would establish whether Baltimore is building a grid-connected V2G system, a behind-the-meter building-backup setup, an isolated critical-load system, or another form of bidirectional emergency power.¹³⁴

Sources

Footnotes

1. “Maryland Awards $28.5 Million to Lower Costs, Electrify Transport as Gas Prices Rise” — Office of Governor Wes Moore / State of Maryland, Aug. 27, 2026. https://governor.maryland.gov/news/press-releases/maryland-awards-285-million-lower-costs-electrify-transport-gas-prices-rise Establishes the $950,000 Baltimore award, four-hub scope, 10 bidirectional EVs and the state’s stated emergency-backup purpose; does not identify vehicles, hubs, hardware, topology or schedule. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

2. “The Baltimore City Community Resiliency Hub Program” — Baltimore Office of Sustainability / City of Baltimore, current page observed Aug. 27, 2026. https://www.baltimoresustainability.org/baltimore-resiliency-hub-program/ Establishes the current 17-partner network, emergency-support role and the city’s statement that four hubs already have solar and battery backup; does not identify the four sites in the new EV pilot. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. “2025 Report on Electric System Planning” — Maryland Public Service Commission, Dec. 1, 2025. https://www.psc.state.md.us/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/2025-CSNA-Report-on-Electric-System-Planning-Final.pdf Establishes BGE’s previously filed VPP/V2G pilot context and the DRIVE Act grid-export/interconnection discussion; does not establish the Baltimore resiliency-hub pilot’s topology. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. Order No. 91391 — Order on DRIVE Act On-Site Generating System Incentives and Distributed Energy Resource Aggregator Licensing — Maryland Public Service Commission, Oct. 25, 2024. https://psc.maryland.gov/wp-content/uploads/Order-No.-91391_PSC-DRIVE-Act.pdf Establishes the DRIVE Act implementation docket and statutory inclusion of bidirectional EV service equipment; does not establish that the Baltimore pilot participates in DRIVE Act programs or exports to the grid. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵