NEMA Currents : Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles

A Plug-in Pilot

goodwina — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:44:00 GMT

I just heard about The EV Project, which officially launched last month. The Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec), using a $99.8 million grant from DOE, plans to install 11,210 chargers for electric vehicles in five states. During the 36-month project, chargers will be installed in Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington State to power 4,700 cars.

I’m really curious to see how this pilot will progress. Electric cars are coming [back], and the question is how, when, and how effectively it will develop. The website offers the chance to suggest locations for charging stations; it’s neat that public input will be part of the process, since the infrastructure needed for electric cars will affect just about everyone.

It’s likely that the importance of standards will emerge as a key finding in The EV Project—standards for the cars, charging stations, etc. For the pilot, there will only be one type of car, but that will obviously not be how electric cars will roll out on a global scale. I like how a blog at cars.com mentioned that plugging in a car will not be like plugging in a hair dryer. This idea was also touched on in October’s issue of ei.

Where Do You Plug-in Your Electric Vehicle?

Moldoveanu, Andrei — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:50:00 GMT

Plug-in vehicles, either hybrid or all electrical, are just around the corner. The big question is how are they going to be recharged?

The answer depends a lot on who you are asking. In the US the most significant effort is made by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE International). A number of standards are in the works to cover vehicles charging. That, by the way, includes a vehicle-to-grid option (V2G) that could become an interesting Smart Grid option in a not too distant future.

In parallel, in Europe efforts are made by a group comprising mostly auto manufacturers under the DKE banner (German combination DIN-VDE). They are pushing proposals through IEC TC69, SC23H (coupler) and others.

The problem is that the approaches are not similar. If the situation continues we'll end up with different car chargers and car couplers in various parts of the world. The cars would have to be different too. Since chargers will be part of the infrastructure things would remain in this situation for many years to come. Is there a serious reason for that? Couldn't automotive manufacturers get together and settle on one system good for whole world? We'd all benefit.

Fact Versus Fiction on Energy Storage Systems

Schweitzer, Eric — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:45:00 GMT

Often, important emerging technologies get caught up in misconstrued facts and misunderstandings of capacities and roles in an already technology-driven and confusing world. An example of this can be found in a recent op-ed in the Washington Post, "Getting Real on Wind and Solar" by James Schlesinger and Robert Hirsch. It's great they included a reference to energy storage systems (ESS) as a necessary component of the smart grid architecture for renewable energy. And they're right that the wind doesn't always blow, the sun doesn't always shine -- so having a stockpile of energy that can be tapped into on demand, and especially during high demand or "peak demand" hours, is very important to ensuring adequate energy is always available. But their main thesis that renewable energy can't be pursued without adding coal-based utility resources or without using hydroelectric dams as energy storage tanks is wrong.

Using today's readily available technologies, ESS can run without the support of a hydroelectric dam or a coal based utility. The NEMA Energy Storage Council includes companies that produce flow cell batteries, flywheel generators, batteries (lithium ion, lead acid, lead carbon, sodium sulphur, zinc bromine, vanadium redox, etc), thermal systems, concentrated solar panels; even Plug-in Hybrid Electrical Vehicles that show great potential as a distributed mass ESS. The list goes on and on and it will continue to grow as existing and emerging technologies vie for the top spot. While stationary (flywheel, flow cells, etc.) ESS does require a larger footprint in terms of space requirements and can be used in some cases as "spinning reserves" for hydroelectric dams; their value must not be unappreciated or misrepresented. Both stationary and mobile ESS (Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicles) provide a vastly untapped revolutionary resource with the ability to alleviate our present and rapidly growing energy crisis and ensure a future success towards building a "smart grid." ESS can provide solutions to current grid capacity issues, residential/ commercial/ industrial/ military back-up generation, load leveling, frequency response just to name a few."

It's important that NEMA continue to serve the role of advocate during these organizational periods where stakeholders grapple with the feat of learning where to go to for accurate and timely information.

NIST on the Right Track

Scolnik, Alvin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:42:00 GMT

The National Institute of Standards and Technology announced last week that it has created a new Smart Grid Interoperability Office to coordinate and accelerate the standardization framework initiative assigned to it under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Good move. An even better move is that NIST has selected Dr. George Arnold, formerly of Lucent Technologies and more recently Deputy Director of NIST Technology Services, as its new Smart Grid Coordinator. NEMA has been an ardent supporter of the NIST effort since its inception. NEMA has also been urging more aggressive action on short term standards development. It is common knowledge that the lack of standardization is holding up Smart Grid investment. SDO's like NEMA and IEEE, have the people and the processes in place to produce standards in record time. George Arnold has the technical knowledge and an understanding of the standardization processes plus connections with the right people in government and industry to make this all happen. NEMA is anxious to work with Dr. Arnold to break the business as usual mold and accelerate development of Smart Grid standards. FERC is waiting. Manufacturers have the technologies. Dr. Arnold, welcome to Smart Grid!!

Energy Storage Technology Is Vital For "Smart" Grid Efforts

Schweitzer, Eric — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:08:00 GMT

NEMA is taking the lead in making Smart Grid and Energy Storage technologies a reality. The NEMA Energy Storage Council (ESC) has held successful meetings where attendees have drafted a list of application categories that help define where Energy Storage (ES) and Distributed Generation (DG) technologies should play a role. The NEMA ESC consisting of manufacturer, utility and government representative stakeholders further established and tasked a NEMA ESC Technical Committee (Stationary and Mobile Subcommittee) to identify specific action items aimed at facilitating the promotion of ES/DG technology to commercial and non-commercial markets. The result of the NEMA ESC Technical Committee meeting January 15, 2009 was an agreement to present a proposal for an all encompassing ES/DG demonstration program to prove the criticality of ES/DG technologies to the Department of Energy. It was fully agreed and can not be understated here that without the complete integration of ES/DG technologies to our ailing National electricity grid there can be no realized “Smart Grid.” Through this proposed demonstration program ES/DG manufacturers aim to prove the essentiality of ES/DG technologies to Smart Grid functionality and to demonstrate to the Government and Federal Agencies that ES/ DG technology can drive increased grid reliability, further reduction of carbon emissions, advanced T/D/G (Transmission/ Distribution/ Generation) capability, islanding capability, renewable energy penetration, interconnection realization, voltage support for public transportation systems, remote area power system capability (RAPS), zero net energy building capability, energy security, economic studies/ cost benefit analyses, and where electrical standards are required. The NEMA ESC has asked the Government Relations Department at NEMA to immediately get the message to Capitol Hill, The Obama Administration, DOE, FERC, NERC and other governmental agencies that NEMA is leading an effort to ensure Smart Grid success in addition to facilitating Energy Storage tax incentives equivalent to those being awarded to renewable technologies such as wind, solar, and hydro. For more information please contact Eric Schweitzer, NEMA Technical Program Manager at Eric.Schweitzer@NEMA.org

Nanotech Start-ups: Can Other People Build It?

leibowitzm — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:57:00 GMT

I read an excellent article from the October 3, 2008 edition of the N.Y. Times Magazine about the world of budding renewable energy companies and the role and function of venture capital companies in supporting them in their efforts to commercialize products. The article provided four basic questions, the answers of which determine largely whether a small start-up company survives; “Can it be built? How hard is it to build it? And if you can build it, can other people build it just as well?”...and..."Will anyone buy it?”

On the question of whether other people can build it, that ability, in the nanotechnology world depends on whether standards exist that one can build it to. In the case of electrical and electronic products that function on the nanoscale, international standards for characterizing the electrical attributes of nanotube, rods, particles and other structures are key to providing the customer a uniform way of evaluating nanomaterials from mulitple suppliers as that material interacts in an end product. And standard methods for assessing reliability and consistency in the manufacturing process are essential to mass production.

It is through IEC TC 113 that these standards are developed, and it is the U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to TC 113 that creates a favorable business model for U.S. nano-electrotechnical firms in the international arena. But the TAG will only be successful if U.S. manufacturing and research organizations in the field get involved.

PHEV's Can’t Plug In if There’s No Place To Plug Them!

Scolnik, Alvin — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:46:00 GMT

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) among other hybrid technologies are being portrayed as the “product du jour” for solving the high-priced gasoline problem internationally and now nationally with our current energy crisis situation at large. Already Toyota, GM, Ford and VW have announced their intent to release PHEVs in the near future. And why not? According to claims, they “just plug into your home outlet.” And, "they can go 40 miles on a charge so they’re terrific for running around town.” Sounds good, but can it be true?? Yes, these vehicles are coming but they will not arrive without assurances of safe battery chemistry and practical infrastructure solutions. There are lots of challenges —where to CHARGE ER UP!!

Will it be easy to plug- in when you get home from work? How will people living in apartments, condominiums, and townhouses plug- in? Will I be able to plug- in when I get to my parking garage? What will it cost me--more during the day to CHARGE ER UP than at night? What are the rules? Who will decide how I plug into the “grid?” The success of the PHEV/BEV is dependent on having the right answers to these and other electrical system questions. With PHEVs and BEVs, the average American has a real chance to climb out of his/her personal economic crisis caused by outrageous gas prices and the nation as a whole has the opportunity to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. But, we must write the standards that define PHEVs/ BEVs as products that rely on practical and safe integration with our electrical infrastructure. Its really time to get started!

Fast Car, Slow Battery (or why we need a better plug)

Hsieh, Eric — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:10:00 GMT

With apologies to Wyclef and Lupe, the answer to "Are you ready to ride?" may be "yeah, maybe sometime tomorrow." Blogs Engadget and AutoBlogGreen have picked up a back-of-the-envelope calculation estimating the charge time on the all-electric Tesla roadster to be 30+ hours from a standard wall outlet. While a regular WD 5-15 provides 15 amps at 125 volts, Tesla's estimate of a 4-hour charge time is based on 80 amps at 220 volts. In addition, many older homes have circuit breaker boxes that can handle 100 amps total. While the plug originated the phase "plug-and-play," the electrical and automotive industries are going to have to revisit the lowly wall outlet standards if consumers are going to adopt PHEVs or EVs in any significant number.