PHEV news, books, companies, research funding. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are in the news. A new book Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future was given a very thorough review by Business Week. Read the review as this is a subject that will only become more important over time. The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports on V2Green, a venture backed NW Company whose founder argues that his company will solve some of the arcane, intricate, technical” issues of managing power to hundreds of thousands of automobiles. In addition, the House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Energy and Environment heard testimony in favor of research funding for the use of PHEVs for electricity storage.

   QuickTake: Smart Grid News published an article in the last edition by Alex Zheng that showed that the success of PHEV(s) depends upon the emergence of the Smart Grid.

   Buy Zoom from Amazon

   Business Week review of Zoom

   NPR interview of Zoom authors

   Seattle PI article about V2Green

   House press release on new energy storage legislation

   Summary of House hearings' purpose (PDF)

   SGN article: Environmental Benefits of the Smart Grid

More work for GIS, OMS & SCADA vendors. Seventy five percent of utilities surveyed by Chartwell  are installing, upgrading or using their geographic information systems (GIS), outage management systems (OMS) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems in 2007 to meet their reliability targets. Twenty percent are considering or planning to use distribution automation as a way to boost reliability. At the same time, about 60% of surveyed utilities are considering mobile workforce management systems. All of this can be found in Chartwell’s latest research report, Distribution Automation and Field Services: The Chartwell 2007 Report.

   QuickTake: Utilities are facing the need to address both technology upgrades and workforce issues and vendors should consider how their solutions address both concerns.

   Chartwell website

Decentralized, distributed generation versus coal and nuclear. Writing in Policy Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic's Benjamin Sovacool argues the U.S utility industry should stop relying on centralized coal and nuclear. Instead, it should invest in renewable energy, and small, decentralized generation. The article posits that those approaches will be best at curbing electricity demand, minimizing power shortages and building a Smart Grid. It argues that current business practices, which are based on coal and nuclear, are not rational when analyzed against five criteria: cost, reliability, security, technical feasibility and negative externalities (such as impact on human health and the environment).

   QuickTake: Managing Editor Philip Bane will moderate a panel at Grid InterOP (Nov 7-9, http://www.gridinterop.com/) on evolving business concepts, to include ‘local power,’ ‘energy independent districts and automated demand response with speakers from EPRI and PNNL.

   Email B.K. Sovacool

   Springer Science+Business Media URL to purchase Sovacool article

Grid Interop Forum. The GridWise Architecture Council is hosting the first Grid Interop Forum, to be held in Albuquerque, NM, November 7 – November 9, 2007. This forum will feature various grid experts and numerous opportunities to collaborate and help determine the future architecture and design of an integrated, transactive electrical grid system.

Grid InterOP Web Site