North American regulators and utilities are moving faster on alternating-current vehicle-to-grid (V2G AC) now that a long-awaited safety supplement for bidirectional chargers is on the books. The shift matters for drivers who want their EV battery to support the grid without buying a matched car-and-charger pair certified as one system.
In May 2026, UL Standards & Engagement published UL 1741 Supplement SC, covering AC bidirectional electric vehicle supply equipment used with vehicles that meet SAE J3072 onboard inverter requirements. Industry groups including the Vehicle Grid Integration Council (VGIC) describe the supplement as a pathway where the charger acts as an oversight supervisor for a compliant vehicle, rather than certifying a specific vehicle-and-charger combination as a single distributed energy resource.
That interoperability angle is the commercial story. Under older matched-pair rules, only a pre-approved EV and EVSE pairing could export power to the grid. Supplement SC is intended to let multiple J3072-capable models work with independently certified bidirectional AC chargers, which testing firms such as QualityLogic note is a freshly defined certification target for manufacturers standing up new test programs.
Communications standards are catching up as well. VGIC points to ISO 15118-20 Amendment 1, published in July 2026, as the expected enabler for bidirectional power transfer alongside the UL 1741 SC and J3072 ecosystem. Together, the stack is meant to give consumers more hardware choices when utilities eventually approve routine interconnection.
Where California’s clock starts
Policy momentum is uneven by state but accelerating in places with active V2G pilots. Several northeastern and mid-Atlantic states have clarified how direct-current V2G fits existing interconnection frameworks, while California and Maryland already spell out certification paths for AC systems using UL 1741 requirement decisions combined with UL 9741 for matched multipiece systems.
California’s process is entering a formal phase. On July 10, 2026, the state’s large investor-owned utilities notified the California Public Utilities Commission that UL 1741 SC had published. VGIC reports that CPUC staff may reconvene a dormant V2G AC interconnection working group by August 19, 2026. Within eight months of that reconvening, utilities must propose updates to Rule 21 language for V2G AC or justify continuing interim pathways if industry standards are deemed insufficient.
For shoppers comparing models in the United States market, the near-term impact is regulatory rather than showroom-ready: bidirectional offerings from automakers such as Ford and General Motors still depend on local utility approval, but a charger-side standard reduces one bottleneck in scaling AC V2G hardware.
What to watch next
Maryland incorporated UL 1741 SC into interconnection rules ahead of publication; Nevada and Connecticut have pending utility proposals to offer both Supplement SC and matched-pair CRD routes, according to VGIC’s regulatory tracker. EV trade coverage in August 2026 frames the supplement as a milestone for commercializing AC bidirectional charging after years of pilot-only deployments.
Drivers should treat export-to-grid features as location-specific until their utility publishes an approved interconnection path. The standards work, however, is no longer theoretical: certification labs are building SC test programs, and California’s August working-group deadline is the next visible policy checkpoint on the calendar.
Sources: Vehicle Grid Integration Council (May–July 2026 UL 1741 SC briefing); QualityLogic knowledge center on UL 1741 SC certification; EVinfo.net industry summary (August 2026).
