DOE lab develops 'smart charging' for electric cars

It's a common question when projecting the impact of electric vehicles: can today's creaky power grid handle millions of juice-hungry car batteries?

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory on Thursday said it has developed a smart charger controller designed specifically for charging cars at off-peak times to get the lowest price and ease strain on the grid.

(Credit: Pacific Northwest National Laboratories.)

A raft of plug-in electric cars are scheduled to come out in 2011, which should deliver a jump in fuel efficiency. But if millions of drivers charged their electric cars during peak times, say, at 6 at night, utilities could strain to meet the demand.

The PNNL's Smart Charger Controller, like other smart-charging equipment, allows a car owner to schedule charging at say, 2 a.m., and to restart charging in case of a glitch. In places where there is time-of-day electricity pricing, the charger uses Zigbee wireless networking to get price information and decide on the lowest price for charging.

Using smart charging, a car owner could save $150 a year, said PNNL engineer Michael Kintner-Meyer, in a statement.

Researchers have projected that without smart-charging technology, utilities would need to build more power plants to meet the spike in demand from electric vehicles. GM is preparing smart-charging technology to be part of the Chevy Volt electric car due in showrooms in late 2010.

The PNNL is seeking to license the smart charger with commercial companies, a representative said.

[jorr73]

I can't see plug-ins taking off. We need something that provides the same freedom we have with gasoline. That means no range limit, your tank is getting empty, pull over at the next gas station and fill up in a few minutes ... not plug it in to the wall and charge it for several hours.

Hydrogen provides this. It's as safe as gasoline, couldn't be more clean and it's the most abundant element in the universe. That's the direction we should be moving.

[methos1999]

Clearly you don't understand the premise of a "plug in" hybrid nor do you understand the difficulties of dealing with hydrogen (I work in the Fuel Cell industry BTW). The concept of a plug in hybrid is you have a engine/generator when you need to go beyond the electric only range, so this allows you to fill up at any gas station. When you don't go beyond the electric range, you can top charge the battery much like you top charge a laptop or cell phone... meaning for daily commuting it is possible for the majority of americans to drive indefinitely without filling the tank.

As for hydrogen... where to begin... does not exist naturally on earth, so either need to get it from reformed hydrocarbon fuels (not much cleaner than burning hydrocarbon fuels in engines, and much more expensive). Or need to get it from electrolyzation... which uses electricity and comes with a cost/efficiency penalty.... So you can either create electricity to charge a battery and drive the wheels, or you can create electricity to split water (for hydrogen), Store the hydrogen (no easy task either), recombine the hydrogen (in the fuel cell) to create electricity which still goes into a battery and then finally drive the wheels...

[Jimmu411]

So this is what? A timer and a relay? Are we over-engineering a bit?

[ksc1462]

What's worse - a DOE lab spending who knows how many millions of dollars to "invent" a timer (by the way that is used in rural electric markets for years to lower electric water heating costs) or some one writing an article announcing the "breakthrough" technology?

[Joe Real]

There are nice heavy duty outdoor electric timers sold at Home Depot for about $10. Just set it to turn on every 1:00 am each day. Been very reliable. I have mine for 5 years now to control lights every Christmas season. It is rated at 25 Amps. There is a lighter version rated at 15 amps that I use to control garden lights, and that one costs $5.

[Mergatroid Mania]

If everyone put their charging off to off-peak hours, wouldn't that make those hours peak too?

[scdecade]

Any knuckle-dragging stoodge could develop the same thing in about a week. Who in their right mind would license such trivial nonsense?

[theBike1945]

Unfortunately, claiming savings by charging at night is a fraud. Most utilities do NOT lower rates for overnight usage. This article is misleading its readers by implying otherwise.Don't greenies EVER tell the whoole truth. You know, that the wind doesn't blow according to our electrical needs, and cannot help meet any peak demand periods, requiring total duplication?

[BogusBasin]

theBike1945 - You sir, are a Republican. I thought you guys were extinct! You should be. Amen

[willdryden]

It is wrong to assume someone's political party by comments here. I do not have peak/off-peak pricing and I still want an EV. The truth is that without storage, wind can not provide base load power. The only renewable that can is wave power. PVs can provide a lot of peak power as they are providing power most of the day when the A/C is working hardest. Facts are facts regardless of what political party you belong to and the fact that "greenies" do mislead people about this is well documented. Storage could be used but servicable EV batterys, pumped hydro, molten salt (solar thermal) or some other system I have yet to hear about.

[Heebee Jeebies]

On the other hand if you have 30 million electric cars charging during the "off-peak" times, then it isn't very off-peak any more is it.

Also, why in the hell should it take hours and hours to charge a car that only goes 40 miles on a charge. For me that would mean a trip in to San Francisco (about 70 miles south of me) would take three days, assuming 40 miles there, 6 to 8 hours to charge, then the rest of the way there and then another charging and so on.

Companies are crazy if they think an electric car that goes 40 miles on a charge and takes hours and hours to recharge is ever going to anything more than an "oh, look is that interesting."

When you can recharge in less than 5 minutes and go 200 miles on a charge then we are talking about something that is actually viable. Until then it is all 100% pure joke.

Robert

[willdryden]

Forty miles is the range of the hybrids because that is the daily commute for 80% of the U. S. people. After the 40 miles, a gas engine turns on to provide power for the rest of the trip. A true EV should have a range of 100+ miles (Tesla Roadster is 244 EPA) and would be considered the second car for a 2 car family. If you need to go farther, take the hybrid.