Page 2: Balancing the grid >>

By Mark England

 

At a time when utility bills are rising relentlessly and when complicated tariffs are alienating much of the energy industry from its customers, it’s important that utilities attempt to address this disconnect and work to restore the relationship. To do this the utility of the future needs to demonstrate that they can help customers manage their energy better; the increasing interest in home energy management systems gives utilities the ideal opportunity to offer a value-added service. They will need to integrate smart metering systems and home area networks to cope with changing home energy requirements, such as electric vehicles, which are becoming a very real consideration, and they need to do this in a way which consumers can easily interact with to get the full benefits of a smart home.

 

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and battery-only electric vehicles could account for 16% of overall new car sales in New York, 9% in Paris, and 5% in Shanghai by 2015, according to a February 2011 report from McKinsey. That prediction assumes limited infrastructure and incentives, which may be an underestimate as both infrastructure and incentives become more widespread.

There are clear potential benefits of EVs in terms of reducing emissions if using renewable energy, but there are also challenges associated with the impact of these

vehicles on domestic energy consumption. An electric vehicle driven 10,000 miles per year (27 miles a day) adds over 50% to the energy consumed by an average U.S. home. Public charging posts are much discussed but are a small part of the overall solution for EV charging: reports such as the Electric Power Research Institute's anticipate most EV owners will charge their vehicles overnight at home. This is just one example of a technology dramatically changing the flow of energy in homes.

 

Enabling renewables

With a dynamic and responsive smart grid forming the backbone of the electric car infrastructure, renewable energies will be better positioned to do much of the recharging. Electric cars can be compatible with energy produced from intermittent sources like wind power. Wind tends to be stronger and more frequent at night, which coincides conveniently with the extra grid capacity needed for charging vehicles at off-peak demand. Micro-generation is becoming increasingly popular, and schemes like the Feed-in-Tariff in the UK have resulted in the rapid uptake of solar PV. But there is still a gap in the market for effective management of these technologies as part of a smarter home.

Page 2: Balancing the grid >>

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EV's & Smart Grid

I must say I can't wait for my 100 mile range, 6 hour to recharge, twice the purchase price electric car to arrive. Made it even better with the thought that the power company can turn off charging when the wind dies down! "Smart" for whom, the consumer?

Paddy Macdonald - 06/05/2012 - 04:07

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