Nissan to collaborate with SDG&E

Weekly Update courtesy of Utility Regulatory News #3979: Continuing its practice of promoting energy policies that contribute to environmental improvements, the California Public Utilities Commission has authorized an electric utility, San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDG&E), to establish temporary experimental rates for plug-in electric vehicles. The rates are part of the utility’s ongoing Pricing and Technology Study, which is being conducted in cooperation with Nissan and ECOtality, Inc., a renewable energy company that specializes in commercial applications of advanced clean energy technologies. Under the associated new rate program, the first 1,000 consumers in San Diego who purchase a new Nissan LEAF electric vehicle will receive free home charging equipment and will be eligible for special time-variable plug-in rates. The utility said that the main hypothesis behind its study was that time-of-use rates for electric vehicle owners would induce them to shift their recharging activities to off-peak periods. The commission agreed that finding out how consumers respond to price signals could be key to successful reintroduction of electric vehicles in the state. The commission added that the study also should help identify any potential safety problems related to recharging as well as any incompatibilities between charging equipment and SDG&E’s infrastructure. The commission noted that the electric vehicle project will be funded in part by a stimulus grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to ECOtality. That grant, totaling $99.8 million, will be matched by private investments. The stimulus funds are expected to be sufficient to cover the costs of the charging equipment for those first 1,000 LEAF purchasers. For the full story Subscribe to URN.

Posted: August 13th, 2010 under Smart metering, dynamic pricing, electric vehicles, energy policy, green energy, regulation, renewables, smart charging, smart grid.
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A bipartisan group of lawmakers this week introduced the Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010, aimed at propelling deployment of EVs and related infrastructure. The bill — sponsored by Senators Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Jeff Merkley (R-Ore.); and Representatives Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Judy Biggert (R-Ill.), Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) — proposes to earmark $800 million in grants to help five communities install charging stations and incentivize EV purchases. It also would extend existing federal tax credits for individuals buying EV and charging system purchases.

“The auto industry is moving quickly to meet customer demand for more efficient vehicles that cost less to fuel up,” stated Rep. Biggert. “But our electric transportation infrastructure must keep pace with the technology.”

The bill also would seek to establish “best practices” in deploying EV infrastructure across the country. The bill’s sponsors cited EVs’ prospects for reducing dependence on imported oil, and also cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

“The goal should be to electrify half of our cars and trucks within 20 years,” stated Sen. Alexander.-MTB

Posted: May 28th, 2010 under Uncategorized, climate change, electric vehicles, energy policy, smart charging.
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News about electric vehicles (EV) has been coming fast and furious in the past few days.

For instance, on March 30, Nissan announced the sticker price for its Leaf EV — $32,780 before government incentives. (Early in March Nissan said it would ramp up the global production capacity for the Leaf from the current reported 50,000 to 500,000 units a year in 2012.)

The next day, Ford and Microsoft announced they were teaming up to integrate smart charging into Microsoft’s Hohm energy management system. Microsoft says Hohm will help drivers to determine the best time to charge their vehicle. “Ford and Microsoft will deliver a solution that will make it easier for car owners to make smart decisions about the most affordable and efficient ways to recharge electric vehicles, while giving utilities better tools for managing the expected changes in energy demand,” stated Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO.

And the same day, Ford was providing test drives of its new Transit Connect commercial van, which the company says will use $2 to $3 worth of electricity to cover its 80-mile range, compared to $12 to fuel the gasoline version of the same van over the same range.

But as interesting and important as those developments were, they overshadowed another announcement on April 1 (no fooling) that ultimately might have much broader ramifications. Namely, in its supremely wonky, pocket-protected style, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) re-designated its arcane-sounding standard, P1809, with the even-more arcane designation “P2030.1.”

Ho hum, right? Actually, not so much.

By re-designating P1809 — which was IEEE’s “draft standard addressing electric-sourced transportation infrastructure” — the organization officially moved its work on EV standards into the realm of the smart grid. It might seem subtle, but it’s a major shift in focus for EV technology stakeholders worldwide. IEEE is developing P2030.1 for use by utilities, manufacturers, infrastructure developers and end users, and thus arguably is creating the technical roadmap for EVs to roll onto roadways—and plug into utility systems—around the world.

“We believe this move will foster a more coordinated, integrated relationship between [IEEE’s EV and smart-grid standards efforts], sparking new smart-grid technology innovation and development,” stated Siri Jodha Khasla, chair of IEEE’s Standards Coordinating Committee.

IEEE’s announcement comes at an opportune time in the smart-grid standards process. These standards have advanced significantly in the past year, and in recent months the U.S. federal government has taken a leadership role by forming a governing board for the U.S. Commerce Department’s stimulus-funded Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP), under the auspices of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

John McDonald, who chairs the SGIP governing board and serves as general manager of marketing for GE’s T&D division, told Fortnightly magazine in a phone call on March 31, “We [NIST’s SGIP] are looking at priority action plans for electric vehicles. It’s something we’re discussing right now,” he said. “And at GE we’re looking at Japanese standards, as part of our work to develop smart-charging technology.”

McDonald pointed out that smart-charging standards might get a significant boost sooner rather than later, as EV drivers begin causing pain for utilities in a highly localized way.

“While the overall penetration rate for EVs will be low for some time, there’s growing fear in the utility industry about pockets of high density,” he said. “You’ll find an affluent subdivision with higher penetration rates than other areas. All these folks will plug in at the same time and the distribution transformers serving those homes will get overloaded.

“Pad-mounted and overhead transformers weren’t sized to handle the load of electric vehicle charging,” he explained. “And they’re designed to have a nighttime cooling period. If we’re charging a bunch of EVs at night, transformers won’t be able to cool down enough, and during the day they’ll blow up or burn out.”

Such pain points will prompt utilities to accelerate plans to install smart-charging infrastructure — and that makes EV integration standards all the more timely. “Once the vehicles start rolling out in certain areas,” McDonald says, “smart charging will come to the forefront almost as quickly as the cars do.”-Michael T. Burr

Posted: April 1st, 2010 under R&D, Uncategorized, electric vehicles, smart charging, smart grid.
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By Michael T. Burr

Each year at the DistribuTECH trade show, a new theme seems to emerge spontaneously on the exhibit floor.

Three years ago it was “smart grid,” a theme that has since spread like a technology shockwave throughout the industry. Two years ago it was “demand response,” and last year it was the home-area network (HAN) and related customer-interface technologies. These themes still are gaining momentum as companies formulate their smart-grid and smart-metering investment plans.

This week in Tampa, Fla., one of the most obvious themes at the show was the rise of electric vehicles. Everyone wanted to talk about EVs—some with a healthy dose of skepticism, but mostly with genuine excitement and optimism.

For example, smart-grid technology company Tendril was displaying a Tesla Roadster at its DistribuTECH booth, immediately across from Fortnightly’s booth. (Company sources explained that Tendril got this sweet car because one of the company’s private equity investors also is a major owner of Tesla Motors.) Tendril used the Roadster to demonstrate the smart-charging features of its energy management software.

Other examples abounded at the show. Plug Smart was demonstrating its EV charging station. At the Sensus exhibit, representatives from the U-SNAP (Utility-Smart Network Access Port) alliance were demonstrating HAN capabilities with a cutaway “doll house” that included an EV parked outside. While the demo wasn’t promoting EV management per se, the point was clear: Sensus is promoting technologies that will integrate EV smart-charging into the company’s FlexNet advanced metering infrastructure.

Likewise representatives at Itron, Lockheed Martin and Control4 were talking about the EV-management capabilities of their recently partnered systems.

The list goes on.

Part of the buzz probably comes from a couple of salient numbers. The first number is 40. That’s the approximate number of unique models of highway-capable EVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) scheduled to begin hitting showrooms between now and the end of 2011. Depending on whom you ask, between 18 and 24 of those models are bound for U.S. highways during that time. Many of the manufacturer names are newcomers, but all the major auto makers—from the United States, Japan, Korea and Europe, not to mention China and India—have EVs of some type slated for rollout in the next 18 months or so.

The second number is 1 million. That’s how many electric vehicles some analysts estimate will be running on U.S. roads by 2020—and other analysts predict much higher numbers by that date. A report issued this week by the ISO/RTO Council concluded that fully integrated smart charging would allow 1 million EVs to operate on the U.S. grid with a negligible increase in the country’s peak load (546 MW)—but only if utilities implement smart charging.

“[EVs] represent a significant new set of power users that grid operators must prepare to serve,” stated Stephen G. Whitley, president and CEO of the New York ISO and ISO/RTO Council chairman. “PEVs also might lead to game-changing innovations in energy distribution.”

It’s no wonder, then, that EVs emerged as the spontaneous theme at this year’s D-TECH. Will they become a transformative force to rival the smart grid? Time will tell, but judging from the track record of D-TECH exhibitors, the EV’s future looks bright indeed.-MTB

Posted: March 30th, 2010 under electric vehicles, green energy, smart charging, smart grid.
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