The Electric Car Will Usher in Smart Grid 2.0

By John Addison

The electric car will facilitate the smart grid and a renewable energy charging infrastructure. The electric car will help make the smart grid relevant to consumers. Right now most cars use inefficient engines fueled with gasoline or diesel. In the coming decades, many cars will use electricity. With a smart grid, renewable energy will do much of the charging.

New electric cars from Nissan (NSANY), Toyota (TM), GM, Ford (F) and others will use a charging standard J1772. The new charging units at home and work will include a smart meter chip. When a driver plugs-in, charging will follow preferences pre-established by the car owner. Many will prefer to save money and charge at night when rates are cheaper.

States with the earliest adopters of electric cars are also states where utilities face big renewable portfolio standards (RPS). The lowest cost renewable per megawatt is wind, but much of the wind turbine power is delivered at night when winds are most constant. With a smart grid and price incentives, electric cars will be charged off-peak using renewables.

The promise of smart grid electric vehicle charging was discussed at the GreenBeat 2009 conference last week by technology leaders such as Google (GOOG) and Cisco (CSCO), and utility leaders such as Duke Energy (DUK) and Southern California Edison. Al Gore presented smart grid and super grid findings from his comprehensive new book about climate solutions – Our Choice.

The current Smart Grid 1.0 is frankly boring. Smart Grid 2.0 promises to make our life better with less use of damaging coal power emissions.

With Smart Grid 1.0, new electric meters are being installed. Utilities save because they no longer need to send people out to read meters. Services can start and stop without rolling trucks to make manual connects and disconnects. Utilities are saving while the consumers pay for the new meters with rate hikes.

Electric utility industry has shifted from years of falling costs to rising costs. Utilities need to shift energy use and vehicle charging off-peak to avoid unnecessary investments in expensive peaking power plants. A smart grid is needed to fully utilize renewable energy and moderate fossil fuel emissions.

Smart Grid 2.0 could help some people over $1,000 per year by automating their preferences in heating, cooling, running smart appliances, and even doing jobs like running the dishwasher when excess renewable energy is available. Energy efficiency and demand management is already saving some enterprises millions per year. Most state public utility commissions (PUC) are afraid of implementing consumer time-of-use (TOU) pricing to give people the incentive to use energy when it is plentiful not scarce. The latest class action lawsuit hardly encourages PUCs to act more boldly.

Public utility commissions are more willing to allow pricing incentives for vehicle charging. Electric cars will help move us to Smart Grid 2.0. Through web browsers, smartphones, and vehicle displays, drivers will select smart charging preferences and get feedback on how to use less electricity and save money. Early electric cars will cost more than their gasoline counterparts, but their electric charging will cost a fraction of the cost of gasoline fill-ups.

Currently, there are only 40,000 electric cars running in the United States. As exciting new offerings are being tested and sold, 1.5 million electric cars are expected in the U.S. by 2015 presented Sharon Allan, the Senior Executive, North American Smart Grid Practice, for Accenture.

Charging these electric cars will help transform the promise of a smart grid into a convenient cost-saving reality.

Comments

[jack kreg]

I just love America's coal powered electric cars!

2009 Nov 24 02:17 PM

[Davewmart]

40,000 electric cars in the States? What's that, golf carts?

2009 Nov 24 04:39 PM

[bluesky123]

the oil rich Gulf state of Qatar announced a $25billion contract has been awarded to build a high speed rail network to "prepare for the end of oil".

2009 Nov 24 06:28 PM

[La Marque]

Most everything in this article is nonsense unless you believe that the governments of the US and states plan to reduce your standard of living by jacking up the cost of electricity. Grid 2.0 will un-employ people, raise the cost of living and impoverish society as a whole. Without large subsidies, the politicians will back off on their utopian dreams of power.

2009 Nov 25 09:42 AM

[John Cordes]

Well gosh then, let's just keep the oil depletion allowance and forget about it.

2009 Nov 25 10:33 AM

[DLB40]

Opinions 1. Facts 0

2009 Nov 25 10:50 AM

[fed_alchemy]

That was before the great recession , everything just got pushed out to 2040

2009 Nov 25 09:26 PM

[Ames Tiedeman]

No it won't. Natural Gas, not electric, must be the future.

2009 Nov 26 02:35 PM

[FDNY RET]

Electric will catch fire when some smart guy develops a rental program with one or several locations in every City.
Drop your discharged car off, plug it in and pick up a charged one-with the green light on--.
Credit card Key style, no paperwork and automatic monthly charge on miles driven.
Now you don't worry about range, or making it home--just like gas stations!!.
The one you "Own" is home, shopping, and picking up the kids--10-20 mi round trips.

2009 Nov 28 05:23 PM

[aja8888]

One farmer in Bakersfield, Ca that had a "smart power meter" installed (against their will) by PGE, received a bill of over $19,000 sent to them for one week's power to a 1/4 hp motor. Nice, very smart equipment. The story was on local TV when I was in Bakersfield in October.

2009 Nov 28 06:51 PM

[LCACM]

Great article. The author shows what is possible with technological innovation. I am in favor of electric cars, as I am more concerned about people's lungs than I am about Globall Warming. I am surprised that we are not concerned about our lungs, only about Global Warming. Electric cars will give our lungs freedom from noxious fumes, that we have to breathe during the morning/evening commute from work. Here are some thoughts to some doubts expressed by different commentators.

Comment: " just love America's coal powered electric cars! " It is true that some of the electricity used by electric cars will be generated by coal burning plants. CO2 sequestration research is showing rapid progress. So even though the power plant will be burning coal, the fumes will be sequestered underground and not irritating your lungs during morning commute.

Comment:"40,000 electric cars in the States? What's that, golf carts?" Toyota Prius cannot be classified as a golf cart.

Comment: "Most everything in this article is nonsense unless you believe that the governments...Grid 2.0 will un-employ people, raise the cost of living " Building the smart grid and creating the large scale storage systems to store Wind and Solar power will only increase the number of employees. US has a chance of saving $700B a year in oil imports going to unfriendly countries, who in turn fund Talliban and other terrorists.

Comment:"No it won't. Natural Gas, not electric, must be the future."
Natural Gas will be very much part of the Electric future. Natural gas is the cleanest fuel to generate electricity at the Electric Power plant. Secondly, fuel cell technology can be used to convert NG to electricity directly, though this is not suitable for cars but home appliances.

2009 Nov 29 08:23 AM

[John Petersen]

When you start adding the costs of batteries ($17,500 per plug-in) a couple charging stations for each plug-in ($2,000 to $5,000 each) and the fact that renewables won't be more than 10% to 20% of electric supply for at least another decade, a combination of natural gas and conventional HEV technology (without plugs) is the cheapest and cleanest short-term alternative by a wide margin. Until some massive technological changes occur, electric vehicles are far more symbol than substance.

2009 Dec 02 08:41 AM