THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE, THE GRID & THE ECONOMY

V2G technology is about to go from science fiction to facilitator of the New Energy economy.

Willett Kempton, a professor focused on New Energy at the University of Delaware, has redesigned a Toyota Scion as an Electric Vehicle (EV) with software allowing its batteries to charge FROM an electric outlet as well as return its power TO the grid via the same outlet. Called Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), Kempton’s technology is presently little more than an experiment but the experiment has proven the theory and the theory is a preview of the very rapidly approaching driving future.

President Obama, in pre-election speeches and interviews, envisioned the V2G concept as part of his New Energy for America agenda. The stimulus bill now making its tempestuous way through Congress provides spending to enhance the national grid and put more battery-powered cars on the road. The energy bill expected to come from the administration later this year will likely have provisions for whatever doesn’t make it through the legislative sausage-making in the stimulus package process.

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The easiest objection to a massive national shift to New Energy is the lack of certain and reliable storage for intermittent (though predictable) sources like solar, wind and wave/tide/current energies. The aging U.S. electric power infrastructure is a complex system with no capacity to store the excess power that flows through it. It is permanently plagued by load-frequency balance and control problems. V2G is the game changer.

The vast majority of vehicles drive only 1-to-2 hours per day. The rest of each 24-hour cycle they could be plugged in and charged up with excess grid capacity, much from New Energy sources, to serve as collective storage.

Kempton’s car was developed in conjunction with the Mid-Atlantic Grid Interactive Cars Consortium (MAGICC) that he co-founded. Alone, it is useful for little more than powering his and his neighbors’ homes for an hour or 2 during a blackout. But the U.S. runs 250 million vehicles and 15 carmakers are bringing electric vehicles (EVs) to market in the next 3 years. Soon, 1-to-10 million vehicles will be going electric every year. In a few years, there will be a formidable storage capacity.

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Initially, V2G technology’s key service will be balancing supply and demand. Presently, grid operators pulse information to coal and natural gas power plants every 2-4 seconds, increasing and reducing load. This “revving” (called "ancillary services (A/S)" by grid engineers) causes wasted fuel and excess spew. Adding V2G technology would allow grid operators to call on stored power to fill gaps with changing power plant output and grid demand so the fossil fuel burners can remain in their “sweet spot” of highest efficiency and lowest spew.

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Eventually, when there are enough EVs on the system, grid operators will be able to pull power in quantities adequate to smooth peaks of demand and avoid power shortages that would otherwise cause brownouts or blackouts. And all that power could come from EV batteries charged by excess afternoon sun, by unused nighttime winds and by cyclic waves, tides and currents.

Some speculate that transferring vehicle fuel supply to a grid fed by burning coal could increase GhG production and aggravate climate change.

Michael Ligett, director of market and energy services, Progress Energy: "As we change . . . from millions of tailpipes to hundreds of smokestacks, our emissions will go up…"

Even in the earliest stages of V2G use, when much of the grid’s power still comes from Old Energy, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) studies show the transition will reduce GhG spew. And, theoretically, all that battery-provided power will eventually be from New Energy instead of spew-generating fossil fuels or waste-producing nuclear energy.

From a MAGICC brochure: “Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology uses electric vehicle batteries to store and return energy to the electric grid based on a real-time signal that communicates the grid’s reliability conditions to the vehicle. Widespread adoption of V2G enabled electric vehicles will help reduce carbon emissions by decreasing petroleum consumption and enabling broader integration and more efficient use of intermittent renewable energies, such as wind and solar power. Additionally, revenue from V2G can partially offset the higher upfront cost of electric vehicles.”

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Kempton demonstrated his vehicle’s unique capability at a January EV event sponsored by PJM Interconnect, the biggest U.S. grid operator. A meter showed his plugged-in car to be drawing power. Then, a PJM operator used a nearby demonstration grid computer to send a signal. In just a second, the meter started spinning in reverse because the car had responded to the signal by sending its power back to the grid.

Arshad Mansoor, vice president, EPRI: "It's gone beyond the nice science fair project…"

Some question the extraordinary complexity of managing tens of millions of car batteries.

Paul Heitman, senior program architect, Comverge: “This could easily degenerate into chaos…It's hard enough to keep track of switches bolted to the side of your house, much less hundreds of thousands of vehicles driving around.”

In fact, a computer managing data on the Internet handles far more information and successfully delivers email at much higher rates than freeway drivers deliver themselves.

The biggest short-term obstacle to V2G is the financial downturn, the biggest medium-term obstacle is battery technology and the biggest long-term obstacle is adequate “smart” grid capacity. But V2G is good news in all those arenas.

Lithium-ion battery technology is widely thought to be the solution to the battery problem and the U.S. has the international edge in the nanotechnology that will use silicon and other advanced materials to make lithium-ion batteries better. Venture capitalists are funding the race to capture that prize. It could even save the flailing Detroit auto industry. In this way, the auto industry is driving innovation and will profit by it.

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Peter Morici, professor, Robert H. Smith School of Business/ University of Maryland: "The auto industry is a driving force for innovation in a variety of industries -- materials, electronics…I don't think you can have a true [major] economy without it."

V2G breakthroughs, though, are not entirely dependent on the auto industry. The Obama administration is poised to make a multi-billion dollar commitment to new “smart” grid technology.

Nigel Gault, economist, IHS Global Insight: "[One wouldn't] necessarily want to preserve an auto industry just because of its spillover benefits to the rest of the economy. If we don't use resources to build autos, but use them to build something else, maybe that something else would have just as much spillover benefits."

Because money is pouring in for smart grid technology development AND battery technology development, the financial downturn is unlikely to slow V2G progress. And that progress is likely to first help start up the economy and, subsequently, to start up the New Energy economy.

Schematic of V2G (click to enlarge)

Electric car returns energy to the grid
Sandy Bauers, February 2, 2009 (Philadelphia Inquirer)
and
Car-Industry Slump Imperils Role in Spurring Innovation
Timothy Aeppel, January 29, 2009 (Wall Street Journal)
and
Proven at PJM: Vehicle to Grid (V2G) and Power System/Transportation Synergies
Victor Udo, November 17, 2008 (Energy Pulse)
and
A Light Bulb Goes On; Will Kempton sees your car—and the electric grid—as a solution to America’s energy problem, not the source of it
Joann Muller, January 7, 2008 (Forbes)

WHO
Mid-Atlantic Grid Interactive Cars Consortium (MAGICC); Willett Kempton, professor, University of Delaware; PJM Interconnection (Terry Boston, President/CEO); Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) (Arshad Mansoor, vice president); Edward Kjaer, director of electric transportation, Southern California Edison (SCE); Victor Udo, Business Planning and Research Manager, Pepco Holdings Inc (PHI)

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WHAT
V2G technology is on the verge of going from a science fiction theory to the backbone of the New Energy economy.

WHEN
- 2007: A University of Delaware test project proved the technology.
- 2008: A PG&E-sponsored test reproduced the success.
- 2010 to 2012: 15 EVs are expected to come to showrooms in the next 3 years.

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WHERE
- PJM serves Pennsylvania, New Jersey, some or all of 11 other states and the District of Columbia.
- Austin, Texas, is considering adding plugs to parking meters.
- Israel, Denmark, Australia, the state of Hawaii and the San Francisco metro region all have plans build charging infrastructures.

WHY
- Kempton’s Toyota Scion EV has a top speed of 95 mph and goes 120 miles on a fully-charged battery.
- EVs can provide the 50 or 60 Hertz (Hz) alternating current (AC) that is used in the home and office.
- A PHEV draws ~1.5 kW, enough power for 1 average home.
- An EV draws ~19.5 kW, or ~ 13 homes.
- PJM Interconnection, the biggest grid operator in the U.S., says its grid, which serves 51 million people, could manage 25 million EVs with V2G technology.
- Using cars to supplement the grid makes both more efficient.
- Kempton estimates the technology will add $5,000 to the cost of a vehicle but will quickly be earned back in fuel savings.
- The PHEV Chevrolet Volt will not initially be equipped with V2G capacity but GM plans to incorporate it soon.
- Ford and Chevrolet continue to research hydrogen and natural gas vehicles but those energy sources will more efficiently used to charge the grid directly.
- Utility, venture capitalists and research projects are presently funding “smart” grid “demand response” testing in 8% of U.S. markets.
- Results of a test of a battery’s capacity to handle the charge-discharge cycles.

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QUOTES
- Thomas Klier, economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago: "What you see with the auto industry is that it's driving a lot of technologies in the background, like machine-tool makers, that enable a large part of the economy to advance…"
- Edward Kjaer, director of electric transportation, SCE: "Energy storage is not only a nexus between these two titans - the energy and auto industries - it's a game-changer…"
- Victor Udo, PHI: “In 2007, PHI, University of Delaware, PJM and other partners, established the Mid-Atlantic Grid Interactive Car Consortium (MAGICC) to prove the V2G concept practically…In October 2007, a team of PHI, PJM and University of Delaware engineers and officials successfully interconnected an AC Propulsion “eBox” (a converted Toyota Scion xB) to the PJM grid using a direct signal from the PJM control center to dispatch the vehicle as a frequency regulation resource, like other traditional generators… This technical breakthrough was demonstrated publicly for the first time on October 23, 2007 to FERC Commissioners and staff at their Washington offices. Since then it has been tested in several distribution systems… the next phase of the test will included expansion to several vehicles that are dispersed in different parts of the PJM grid performing frequency regulation and storage for renewable but intermittent resources such as wind and solar.”