Utilities jump on board to plan for plug-in cars

ByABC News
March 31, 2008, 12:08 AM

— -- In a sign of accelerating progress on plug-in hybrids the 100 mpg vehicles you can't yet buy in showrooms electric utilities quickly are linking with automakers and tech companies to develop "smart-charging" technology that controls when and how fast a vehicle is recharged.

"Smart charging is an essential capability for Duke and all electric utilities as PHEVs enter the market," Duke Energy chief technology officer David Mohler says. "Through this capability, we're able to reduce stress on the grid during peak periods and keep rates low."

As if to make the point that plug-ins no longer are exotic experiments, California clean-air regulators last week required automakers to put 58,333 of them on the state's roads from 2012 through 2014.

Certain that plug-ins are imminent, utilities and others are moving on everyday details for recharging. "People are saying, '(Plug-ins) are more immediate than I expected,' " says David Kaplan, chief technology officer and founder of V2Green, a Seattle company with smart-charging technology. "We've been in this almost two years, which makes us old-timers, and we've seen a sea change."

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) have bigger batteries than normal gasoline-electric hybrids and can be recharged from a household outlet. They run on their electric motors more and their gasoline engines less. Prototypes suggest 70 mpg to 120 mpg is possible.

Other plug-ins coming are pure electric cars, such as General Motors' Volt, due in 2010 or 2011.

Developments on thorny questions of when, where and how to recharge, how to pay the bill and dealing with more power demand:

The Electric Power Research Institute is linking Ford Motor with a group of East Coast utilities that will test ways to recharge Ford's prototype plug-in Escape hybrid.

EPRI says it's in partnership with the automaker on recharging and billing details. Ford also has supplied plug-in Escapes to utility Southern California Edison.

Duke Power and GridPoint, a vendor of smart-charging programs, reported last week that they charged during off-peak night hours an electric vehicle that was plugged in late in the afternoon.