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  • Utility Companies Plan for Plug-In Influx

    2008-08-18

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    Energy companies are using the increased electricity demand from the emergence of plasma TVs to prepare for the emergence -- and energy needs -- of electric vehicles.

    by TOM KRISHER, Associated Press

     

    Slideshow:
    Plug-in
    Rechargeable cars like the Ford Escape Hybrid can consume roughly four times as much energy as a plasma TV.

    Which draws more juice from the electric grid, a big-screen plasma television or recharging a plug-in hybrid car?

    The answer is the car. But the electricity drawn by plasma televisions is easing the minds of utility company executives across the nation as they plan for what is likely to be a conversion of much of the country's vehicle fleet from gasoline to electricity in the coming years.

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    Rechargeable cars, industry officials say, consume about four times the electricity as plasma TVs. But the industry already has dealt with increased electric demand from the millions of plasma TVs sold in recent years. Officials say that experience will help them deal with the vehicle fleet changeover.

    So as long as the changeover from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles is somewhat gradual, they should be able to handle it in the same way, said Mark Duvall, program manager for the Electric Power Research Institute.

    ''We've already added to the grid the equivalent of several years' production of plug-in hybrids,'' Duvall said at a conference on electric vehicles in San Jose, Calif. ''The utilities, they stuck with it. They said, 'All right, that's what's happening. This is where the loads are going, and we're going to do this.'''

    Automakers, such as General Motors and Toyota, are planning to bring rechargeable vehicles to the market as early as 2010. But speakers at the Plug-In 2008 conference say it will take much longer for them to arrive in mass numbers, due in part to a current lack of large-battery manufacturing capacity. Auto and battery companies still are working on the lithium-ion battery technology needed for the cars and on how to link the battery packs to the vehicles.

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    ''We see the vehicle penetration levels coming at a rate that's manageable,'' said Efrain Ornelas, environmental technical supervisor with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in San Francisco. ''It's not like tomorrow the flood gates are going to open and 100,000 vehicles are going to come into San Francisco or something like that.''

    Instead, the vehicles will show up by the thousands throughout Northern California, he predicted. PG&E will be able to track their charging patterns and plan accordingly for the future, he said.

    Utility officials say they already are coping with increased demand, especially during peak-use periods in the afternoon and early evening. But the rest of the day, most utilities have excess generating capacity that could be used to recharge cars.

    But the preparation doesn't mean electric vehicles will be accommodated without problems and good planning, the officials say.


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    Cornell Univ USA 2008-08-23

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