V2G Business, Policy and Technology Forum 2026

A vehicle-to-grid conference run by The Smart Grid Observer for utilities, automakers, charging operators, regulators and standards experts. It is billed as a neutral, non-commercial forum for speeding up V2G standardization and adoption in North America, with live demos and an end-to-end testbed.

V2G Business, Policy and Technology Forum 2026

V2G Business, Policy and Technology Forum runs October 27–29, 2026 in Ypsilanti Township.

What it is

The forum is run by The Smart Grid Observer, an online information portal and weekly e-newsletter for the smart energy industry. Its subject is vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and its development and implementation in the United States. The organizer calls it "a neutral, non-commercial venue" where V2G stakeholders work on speeding up standardization and adoption in North America.

This fall forum is the eighth. The organizer's list of who attends includes network strategists and executives at utilities, grid operations engineers and planners, EV program and fleet managers, charging network operators, EV manufacturers, regulatory and standards experts, and financial and strategic investors.

How the three days run

• October 27–28: keynotes and opening sessions, then parallel Track A and Track B sessions. Topics include end-to-end cybersecurity for V2G, customer compensation and incentives, standards and interoperability (ISO 15118, OCPP, SAE, IEEE and OpenADR), and AC-V2G certification pathways. Both days end with a reception.
• October 29: a morning of concurrent workshops, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. One goes deeper into VGI policy and regulation. The other debriefs the end-to-end demonstration testbed.
• Before the forum: a pre-conference basics class, Introduction to V2G, runs on the afternoon of Monday, October 26.

The organizer marks the agenda as subject to change.

Demos and the testbed

V2G equipment is shown working, not just described in talks. Demo participants get tabletop and adjacent floor space, plus a virtual exhibit page that stays up for a year after the forum.

The forum also stages an end-to-end V2G testbed. The organizer calls it "an industry-first Testbed", built to show how standardized methods can evaluate interconnection, communications, cybersecurity and system safety.