General Motors (GM) has revealed it is partnering with electric vehicle research organisations and utilities to prepare the electrical infrastructure for the introduction of its Volt plug-in electric hybrid.
The company, which announced the initiative at the Plug-In 2008 conference in California this week, said it has signed 34 utilities to the scheme, along with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), to ensure that utility metering options support vehicle charging without penalising customers.
"We're sitting down to ensure that the vehicles they are building and the utility grid are ready for each other," said Mark Duvall, programme manager for electric transportation at EPRI. "It's about getting the technology on the vehicle right. The utilities are making tremendous investments in smart metering that they are rolling out to their customers, and the vehicles have to talk to the smart metering technology."
The scheme focuses on the implications for overall load on the grid in addition to electricity costs for the customer, said Duvall, adding that one plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) equalled roughly four plasma screen TVs in electricity terms. "The near-term challenge for utilities will be in distribution networks," he said. "Every utility has an inventory of distribution systems, and some of their substations are fully burdened."
Realistically, the rollout of PHEVs is unlikely to cause any load problems for utilities in the mid-term. Research from Frost & Sullivan suggests that the US will have roughly 140,000 PHEVs on the road by 2015. At an average energy capacity of 15KW/hr per vehicle, that suggests a daily energy draw of 2.1Gw/hr, assuming all vehicles are subjected to a deep cycle charge. That equates to the daily energy consumption of about 68,600 average US households or less than 0.01 per cent of all US homes. But should PHEVs rapidly enter the mainstream, the grid is likely to come under more pressure.
Duvall moved to distance the programme from Google’s vehicle to grid initiative, which focuses more on using electric vehicles for energy storage that could be delivered back to the grid to assist with demand management. " These are interesting topics but they’re not as critical in terms of integrating the vehicles," he concluded.
Company plans to manufacture up to 10,000 Volts in first year, rising to 60,000 units in the near future 03 Dec 2009
Report released to coincide with North American International Auto show says electric cars and plug-in hybrids could account for more than 15 per cent of the market within five years 13 Jan 2010
Survey reveals utility suppliers worry about expense as well as lack of support and standards 11 Mar 2009
Auto giant announces detail for four new electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles 19 Aug 2009Car maker defies bankruptcy to press on with PHEV plans 10 Jun 2009
Resolution follows similar decision by Shell shareholders last month 09 Feb 2010
Measures needed to ensure cars do not charge from fossil fuel-powered grid 09 Feb 2010
Researchers use salicornia plants in carbon-negative process to grow biofuels 09 Feb 2010
More news
Friends of the Earth’s biofuels campaigner Kenneth Richter argues that biofuel targets are a distraction from tried-and-tested ways of reducing transport emissions 09 Feb 2010
Trewin Restorick wonders if the concept du jour of "nudging" behaviour change can help curb UK carbon emissions 08 Feb 2010
From feed in tariffs to vanishing top soil, we run down the top stories from the past week 08 Feb 2010 More in-depth
Post your comment
Send an email to the Business Green editor at feedback@businessgreen.com
