Plug-In Hybrids Could Help Stabilize The Grid
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 12.23.06
A recent article in Technology Review argues that plug-in hybrid vehicles could help stabilize the electrical grid. The idea is called "vehicle-to-grid" (often abbreviated as V2G). The article says: "In such a system, plug-in hybrids, rather than being merely an extra burden to the grid, become a much needed way for grid managers to balance the amount of energy generated at any given time to match the amount of energy being consumed. Millions of cars, each with several kilowatt hours of storage capacity, would act as an enormous buffer, taking on charge when the system temporarily generates too much power, and giving it back when there are short peaks in demand."
The article goes on to explain:
In a V2G system, the batteries of millions of plug-ins would be used as a buffer to even out supply and demand and to help keep the grid stable, says Karl Lewis, chief operating officer of GridPoint, a startup based in Washington, D.C., that has developed technology that could help make such a system work. In this kind of system, each vehicle would have its own IP address so that wherever it is plugged in, the cost of the energy it uses to recharge would be billed to the owner. With the right equipment, the car could also return energy to the grid, giving the owner credit. Mock-ups of such systems have already been tested by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in Golden, CO, and by a company called AC Propulsion, based in San Dimas, CA.
:: Via Technology Review
I first heard of this while attending James Woolsey's speech at Alt Car Expo. Another compelling reason to go electric.
The energy give-back feature presumes tha car generates power (perhaps PV). Otherwise the energy would be needed for the vehicle. Certainly there would have to be a maximum discharge feature to get you to work/home/errands the next day before charging that night (or the external charging source of your vehicle).
That said, the energy give-back would imply I am connected to the grid at work - for people who work at central locations (the majority?).
A strange concept at best.
There is another potential benefit that has been left out.
I live in Olympia, WA; where we just experienced a protracted power outage due to an intense wind storm. Our house has no backup heat source beyond the forced-air gas furnace which is dead without electricity. With grid-enabled cars, a hybrid car could have acted as an emergency generator to provide limited power to our house while the grid was out. A gas furnace requires only power to run the fan and controls - much less than the idle power output of a hybrid auto-generator. If our Jetta where a diesel-hybrid electric - that backup power could have been provided with biodiesel. This is more efficient than having to add a back up power generator to our house, or a fireplace or woodstove - all of which would be added expense.
I think that grid-enabling hybrid electric vehicles is a natural evolution to get more utility out of our vehicles which sit around idle most of the time.
This would only be fair if the rate for vehicle charging per KWH was at a discount. Basically, if the grid wants to use your car as a capacitor to stabilize itself, they should pay you for that privilege. More so because your battery would experience more charge/discharge cycles than it would from just being used as a vehicle. This shortens battery lifespan and costs the owner when it comes time to replace the battery pack.
So I'm not against this system, as long as things are implemented on a fair basis.
I agree with the article. The PHEVs would act like the batteries in a renewable energy powered home or building, absorbing and releasing energy from the system as needed to keep everything working smoothly without having to fiddle with the system components so much. Trick is getting enough PHEVs hooked to the system and tinkering with the PHEVs and the grid to allow this to happen. I hope it gets done because then renewable energy systems, like wind, wave, and solar farms, can function more smoothly.
Great idea..... NOT
You plug in your car when it's half full, and come back a couple of hours later to discover it's got less energy in it than when you plugged it in because the grid's nicked it.
Cute, but the vehicle batteries are:
1) Expensive
2) Won't last forever
Who compensates the vehicle owner for depreciation of his batteries from use as a buffer?
This idea has been talked about for quite a few years...but now that PHEVs are getting closer, people are getting very excited about it.
Utilities are starting to realize that they could store night-time wind-power in thousands/millions of car batteries and avoid costs for all sorts of things: "regulatory services, spinning reserves, peaker plants" -- cars as distributed energy storage can be a big deal!.
Felix Kramer, Founder, The California Cars Initiative -- lots more info at CalCars FAQ and the latest news at News Archive
While I don't think this will happen, I'm glad to see thinking about energy options becoming more flexible. We're going to need that to find optimal solutions.
I don't think much of ideas that automatically assume that centralized power is the way to go. 1/6 of generated power is consumed getting it to the destination. This idea would possibly work best on the community leve.