EE Global Interview (May 12, 2010)
Moderator: Well, we’re here with Jon Wellinghoff, Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission Chairman. Thanks so much for giving us some of your time. Chairman Wellinghoff: You’re very welcome.

Moderator: I want to talk to you today about the smart grid. Now, there’s a lot of talk about the smart grid in the industry right now. If you could if us a little bit of insight on the infrastructure of the existing transmission grid and what you guys are doing to make it more integrated so that smart grid technology can actually come to fruition.

Wellinghoff: Well, we’re trying to do everything we can to encourage the proliferation of technology for the smart grid. We have some statutory authority that allows us to provide incentives for smart grid-type upgrades to the transmission side that is our responsibility. FERC is over the wholesale side of the grid, and we do what we can to encourage the transmission owners and operators to upgrade it with the latest and best technology to make sure that that side operates well.

We also do what we can to encourage the wholesale markets to place into their tariffs ways for consumers that do have smart grid-enabled appliances or businesses and industries that have smart grid-enabled loads that can actually use those in ways that can make the grid work more efficiently. For example, in an area of the Mid-Atlantic from New Jersey to Chicago called PJM, which is a grid operator, an independent grid operator under our jurisdiction, they have tariffs in place that allow, right now, about 9,000 megawatts of what is called demand response to participate in making the grid more efficient. And essentially, it is part of integrating the smart grid into the system, because they control their loads and they move their loads in ways that the grid operator directs them to through communications, and, by doing that, they get paid to do it, so there’s some tremendous things going on there.

We’re also working with some very innovative ideas as part of that PJM system. There’s a professor at the University of Delaware by the name of Willett Kempton, and he’s converted five formerly gasoline cars to all-electric and put in electric motors and lithium ion batteries, and, in addition to using them as electric cars and doing testings on how much they drive and the performance and so forth, when he plugs them into the grid, he’s got a box in that car that’s got electronic equipment in a very small module. That electronic equipment can wirelessly signal to the grid operator, PJM, and the grid operator signals back to them what’s called a regulation signal, meaning a signal that’s needed to determine what’s
stabilizing the grid. Based upon that signal, the car’s battery can actually follow the signal as it’s plugged in, and, as it’s being charged, as the charge is going up, it follows the regulation signal and provides regulation services to the grid just like a generator.

Moderator: That’s very cool.

Wellinghoff: Right now the generator’s providing it. The coolest thing is ...

Moderator: That’s really cool ...

Wellinghoff: They’re getting paid to do it.

Moderator: [laughter]

Wellinghoff: They’re charging the car, and they’re getting paid $7 to $10 per car per day to provide regulation service while they’re getting charged. It’d be like driving into a gas station filling your car up, and they guy coming out and giving you a $20 bill.

Moderator: So how many stories like this are out in the country right now trying different types of technologies to make the different applications that a smart grid has work?

More at: http://www.ferc.gov/media/videos/wellinghoff/2010/05-12-10-wellinghoff-transcript.pdf

Articles and Papers on GIV and EVs
This section has articles and reports by the University of Delaware GIV group and our industrial partners, on integrating EVs with the grid, and also on EV design, use, and policy. They are divided into peer-reviewed articles, reports, and conference presentations.

Peer-reviewed Articles
Published articles have gone through peer-review to insure quality, and are available via their DOI, and in research libraries worldwide. Some articles are available on-line only with subscription; these will also have a draft or page proof version here that can be accessed. Articles are listed below by topic area.

GIVs and Power Markets

Tomić, Jasna and Willett Kempton, 2007, "Using fleets of electric-drive vehicles for grid support" Journal of Power Sources, 168 (20), p459-468. Published doi: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2007.03.010., may require payment. Proof with minor errors. Examines two actual electric vehicle fleets, their operating cycles, and the value of revenue from these vehicles if they were equipped for V2G power (the fleets examined were electric but not equipped for V2G). This is a realistic analysis of real fleets in use today, and gives the revenue potential in the electric markets in which they operate.

Letendre. Steven, Paul Denholm, and Peter Lilienthal, 2006."Electric and Hybrid Vehicles: New Load or New Resource?”, Public Utilities Fortnightly, December 2006., p28-37. (This article is co-authored by employees of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright.) PDF of published article. Review of V2G principles and new analysis of how it affects the load curve of electric utilities, also brief analysis of how plug power capacity affects V2G revenue. Clear and readable. Sidebar interview with CEO of Tesla Motors. The subtitle, inserted by the editors of this utility industry journal, is "The industry must join a growing chorus in calling for new technology."”

Kempton, Willett and Jasna Tomić. 2005. "Vehicle to Grid Power Implementation: from stabilizing the grid to supporting large-scale renewable energy". Journal of Power Sources, Volume 144, Issue 1, 1 June 2005, p280-294. Published doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2004.12.022, may require payment. Final proof. Overall size of V2G in comparison to electric generation and load, control strategies and business models for implementation, analysis of V2G as storage for large-scale renewable electricity. Appendix gives practical considerations and capacity of power connections.

Kempton, Willett and Jasna Tomić. 2005. "Vehicle to Grid Fundamentals: Calculating Capacity and Net Revenue", Journal of Power Sources, Volume 144, Issue 1, 1 June 2005, Pages 268-279. Published doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2004.12.025, may require payment. Final proof. This is our best exposition of the fundamentals of both the vehicle fleet and electric markets. The basic 17 equations of V2G are derived. Correction to published version: Page 275, Table 3, line 3: should be "27.4 kWh" not "27.4 $/kWh".

Letendre, Steven and Willett Kempton, 2002. "The V2G Concept: A New Model for Power?”, Public Utilities Fortnightly 140(4): 16-26, February 2002, may require payment. Proof. Also available in our Japanese translation. This article is our best short summary (8 pages) of the V2G concept, incorporating findings from our CARB-LADWP report (below) that show the value of ancillary services to be far higher than that of peak power. This article is written for an electric-utility audience and thus provides less explanation of power types and markets than our articles written for a transportation audience.

Kempton, Willett and Toru Kubo. 2000. "Electric-drive Vehicles for Peak Power in Japan”, Energy Policy 28(1): 9-18. Published doi:10.1016/SO301-4215(99)00078-6, may require payment. Final proof. Also available in our Japanese translation. The Kempton-Kubo analysis is for Tokyo, based on existing power rates and Japanese driving patterns.

Kempton, Willett and Steven Letendre, 1997. "Electric Vehicles as a New Source of Power for Electric Utilities”, Transportation Research 2(3): 157-175. Published doi:10.1016/S1361-9209(97)00001-1, may require payment. Proof. This is the first description of the key concepts of V2G: That the potential resource exceeds all current electric generation by many times, that the value is not in bulk power but in responding when needed, and that the driver sets limits based on driving need within which the grid operator dispatches based on time of electric system need. This first article is before we called the idea "V2G" and the analysis is based primarily on peak power, which subsequent work (above) shows to be a lower-value market for V2G power.

GIVs for Wind Integration

Budischak, Cory, DeAnna Sewell, Heather Thomson, Leon Mach, Dana E. Veron, and Willett Kempton, 2012, Cost-minimized combination of wind power, solar power, and electrochemical storage, providing the grid up to 99.9% of the time, Journal of Power Sources, 225(2013), 60-74. Published doi: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2012.09.954, open access. A one-page follow-up corrects two errors in the published article, doi: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2013.01.046. Our PDF, contains the correction page. Comparison of GIV with other storage mediums for large-scale integration of renewable generation. GIV is the least expensive storage tested. At very high renewables penetration, all vehicles would be used.

Kempton, Willett and Amardeep Dhanju, 2006, "Electric Vehicles with V2G: Storage for Large-Scale Wind Power". Windtech International 2 (2), pp 18-21, March 2006. A brief technical introduction to V2G as storage for wind power. Analyzes the duration of low-wind events as a measure of storage needs, and compares national-level potential V2G power with average load in 11 countries. This article appeared in the March 2006 issue of Windtech International and is displayed with permission. Copyright 2006 by Siteur Publications.

EV Use, Policy and Market

Pearre, Nathaniel S., et al. Electric vehicles: How much range is required for a day's driving? Transport.Res.Part C (2011), doi:10.1016/j.trc.2010.12.010, may require payment. Proof, may contain typos. Driving data from 400 gasoline vehicles over a year, used to determine the distribution of daily range needed.

Hidrue, Michael K., et al., Willingness to pay for electric vehicles and their attributes. Resource Energy Econ. (2011), doi: 10.1016/j.reseneeco.2011.02.002, may require payment. Proof, may contain typos. National survey of car buyers used to determine willingness to pay for EVs, as well as individual attributes such as longer rages, faster charging, faster acceleration, and lower pollution.

EV and GIV Technology

Kempton, Willett, Francesco Marra, Peter Bach Anderson and Rodrigo Garcia-Valle, 2013 “Business Models and Control and Management Architectures for EV Electrical Grid integration,” accepted, IEEE Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Europe. Pre-publication version. Chapter 4 of Electric Vehicle Integration Into Modern Power Networks edited by Rodrigo Garcia-Valle and Joao A. Pecas Lopes (published by Springer Science + Business Media), pp. 87-105. Copyright 2013, IEEE. Doi: 10.1007/978-1-4614-0134-6_4. Functional comparison of liquid fuels versus electricity, comparison of functions and standards for charging stations, and review of three projects that integrate EVs into the electric grid.


Reports

Kempton, Willett, Victor Udo, Ken Huber, Kevin Komara, Steven Letendre, Scott Baker, Doug Brunner, & Nathaniel Pearre, 2008, “A Test of Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) for Energy Storage and Frequency Regulation in the PJM System”. This report documents a practical demonstration of a Grid Integrated Vehicle providing real-time frequency regulation from a single electric car. At the University of Delaware, on October 18, 2007, a team of engineers and officials from UD, Pepco Holdings Inc (PHI), and PJM Interconnection successfully interconnected an AC Propulsion “eBox” to the PJM grid using a direct AGC signal from the PJM control center. The vehicle was dispatched in real time as a regulation resource, like traditional generators. This report covers the engineering, market and experimental results of this proof of concept demonstration and study. (UD's later developments use an "aggregator" to communicate with PJM, rather than PJM communicating to individual cars, that is not covered in this earlier report.)

Udo, Victor, 2008, "Proven at PJM:Vehicle to Grid (V2G) and Power System/Transportation Synergies,", Energy Pulse, November 17, 2008. This report explains the overall approach of using electric vehicles to support the power system. Also, reports on the first successful dispatch of an electric vehicle from a real-time ISO signal, with a photo of the event.

Gage, Thomas B., 2003. "Final Report Development and Evaluation of a Plug-in HEV with Vehicle-to-Grid Power Flow”, Report, AC Propulsion, December 2003. This report describes a tri-fuel vehicle which was designed, built, and tested, under CARB Grant Number ICAT 01-2. The prototype vehicle is refueled and run on electricity or natural gas, or gasoline, using a series hybrid. From the abstract: The project vehicle provides 35 miles of battery-only range with highway performance capability so operation on grid electricity can eliminate operating emissions and one or more cold engine starts per day. The project vehicle can re-charge its traction battery from the grid in less than one hour. The hybrid power unit in the project vehicle can sustain battery charge at highway speeds providing long distance travel unconstrained by battery range. The hybrid power unit in the project vehicle can also generate electricity while the vehicle is parked. In this stationary mode, the hybrid power unit can operate on gasoline stored on the vehicle or on low-pressure natural gas piped to the vehicle from the gas main. While parked, the power generated can be exported as alternating current electricity either to the grid or to stand-alone loads. Interactions between the vehicle and the grid, including power export, can be controlled from remote locations via wireless internet connection. These capabilities are demonstrated in stationary testing and 6000 miles of on-road use.

Brooks, Alec, 2002. "Vehicle-to-Grid Demonstration Project: Grid Regulation Ancillary Service with a Battery Electric Vehicle”, Report, AC Propulsion, December 2002. Sponsored by CARB. In addition to the test results, this report has a thorough analysis of regulation services and how V2G can provide them. From the abstract: A test vehicle was fitted with a bidirectional grid power interface and wireless internet connectivity, allowing power flow to or from the vehicle to be dispatched remotely. Power dispatch commands were sent wirelessly to the vehicle at 4-second intervals, and the vehicle response was monitored and recorded. Results showed that wireless data transmission times were within ISO system requirements, and that the energy throughput through the battery due to regulation is similar to that of typical daily driving. The value created by the service exceeds the battery wear out costs under most operating assumptions.

Kempton, Willett, Jasna Tomić, Steven Letendre, Alex Brooks & Timothy Lipman. 2001. Vehicle-to-Grid Power: Battery, Hybrid, and Fuel Cell Vehicles as Resources for Distributed Electric Power in California. UCD-ITS-RR-01-03. For an executive summary, click on HTML or PDF, or click on the title above for the full report. This CARB/LADWP-sponsored report is specific to California, yet it has comprehensive analysis on V2G, some not in subsequent publications. This was the first full coverage of all three vehicle types--battery, fuel cell and hybrid vehicles, across four power markets--baseload, peak, spinning reserves, and regulation services. The approach and formulae developed and explained here are the basis for our subsequent analysis. (Although our equation notation was rationalized and standardized in our 2005 and later publications. Very brief summary of economic results: Battery vehicles (also called "electric vehicles" or EVs) with telematics and power electronics designed to allow V2G could earn $2,000 - $3,000 per year by selling a form of power called "regulation services." Fuel cell and hybrid vehicles could earn $1,500 - $2,500 per year by selling electricity as "spinning reserves." We found that V2G is economically valuable in the CalISO market for these forms of electric power that go on briefly when needed. Vehicles do not appear to be economically competitive for "baseload power," that is, constant power generation, which has lower blue per kWh and more drain on the battery, hydrogen, or fuel tank.

Conference Presentations and Unrefereed Papers

Presentations from The Seattle Electric Vehicle to Grid Forum (PDFs), also Press release.

The two papers below are from a symposium organized by Alec Brooks, "Vehicle to Grid: A new Vision for Electric Transportation," at the EVAA Electric Transportation Industry Conference (Sacramento, Dec. 2001).

David Hawkins, from the California Independent System Operator, discusses V2G as a resource for grid regulation in California. He explains what the ISO does, and compares V2G with traditional sources of regulation--generators running at partial speed. He also describes the characteristics of wind generation, of which 2-3 GW is planned to be added in California, and why V2G is an ideal complement for it. Click to see the slides in PDF: David Hawkins, 2001, "Vehicle to Grid--A Control Area Operators Perspective"

These slides give an overview of V2G for regulation, then give specifications for already built by AC Propulsion that are capable of doing real-time grid regulation. It also describes two V2G demonstration projects they are carrying out, the "EV Grid Regulation Demonstration Project" and the "Grid Connected Hybrid Vehicle Project." Click for PDF of slides: Alec Brooks, 2001, "Electric Drive Vehicles: A Huge New Distributed Energy Resource"

http://www.udel.edu/V2G/ArticlesandPapers.html

PETER DYKSTRA: Nuclear power: dying or reborn?
Published: July 29, 2013


Perhaps the oddest thing about nuclear power's journey through American history is that we can't seem to decide whether nukes are dying, being reborn or walking around as zombies.

On the one hand, nuclear plants have had a bad-news few years. In June, Southern California Edison announced that it would permanently shut its trouble-plagued reactors at San Onofre, which powered 1.4 million homes in the region. This spring, Dominion Resources closed a nuclear plant south of Green Bay, Wis. (The plant was in good working order, but falling energy prices made the Kewaunee facility not worth the trouble.)

On the other hand, nukes remain central to America's electric grid, pumping out about 19% of our national juice, and die-hard supporters see nuclear power as a carbon-free cure for climate change.

The industry's origins date to the 1950s, when "too-cheap-to-meter" nuclear energy was touted as a sidekick to the H-bomb and a mascot for the Cold War. Thanks to quiet, steady growth in the 1960s and early '70s, approximately 35 plants were in operation by 1977, and construction had begun on 30 more. By then, however, a growing environmental movement also was targeting nukes with mass demonstrations at sites like Seabrook, N.H., and star-studded benefits like the 1979 "No Nukes" concerts.

Around this time, Wall Street noticed that nuclear plants were not the financial performers they were cracked up to be....

Duke juggles nuclear plant safety fixes
Company says Oconee safe, delays $400M project
Jul. 27, 2013

Written by
Eric Connor
Staff Writer

Duke Energy is delaying plans to install safety valves at the Oconee Nuclear Station’s three reactors as the company is pressed by federal regulators to meet several missed deadlines on competing multimillion-dollar projects meant to protect against natural disasters.

The company insists the 40-year-old plant, 40 miles from Greenville, is safe in the meantime with other precautions it has taken. Nuclear watchdogs say the delay is another example of an industry slow to confront the high-stakes challenges of atomic energy.

In a letter to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the company said that it would have to put off until 2020 installing safety valves that regulate the release of steam in the case of an accident.

The company had said it could begin installation this year for the $400 million project initiated in response to regulators’ demands years ago for better protection against tornadoes...

Definition of Cancer Should Be Tightened, Scientists Say
By TARA PARKER-POPE

A group of experts advising the nation’s premier cancer research institution has recommended sweeping changes in the approach to cancer detection and treatment, including changes in the very definition of cancer and eliminating the word entirely from some common diagnoses.

The recommendations, from a working group of the National Cancer Institute, were published on Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. They say, for instance, that some premalignant conditions, like one that affects the breast called ductal carcinoma in situ, which many doctors agree is not cancer, should be renamed to exclude the word carcinoma so that patients are less frightened and less likely to seek what may be unneeded and potentially harmful treatments that can include the surgical removal of the breast.

The group, which includes some of the top scientists in cancer research, also suggested that many lesions detected during breast, prostate, thyroid, lung and other cancer screenings should not be called cancer at all but should instead be reclassified as IDLE conditions, which stands for “indolent lesions of epithelial origin.”

While it is clear that some or all of the changes may not happen for years, if it all, and that some cancer experts will profoundly disagree with the group’s views, the report from such a prominent group of scientists who have the clear backing of the National Cancer Institute brings the discussion to a much higher level and will most likely change the national conversation about cancer, its definition, its treatment and future research.

“We need a 21st-century definition of cancer instead of a 19th-century definition of cancer...

Chinese coal company releasing toxic wastewater, Greenpeace says
State-owned mining firm's operations in Inner Mongolia depleting groundwater levels and polluting water sources, report claims

Reuters guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 23 July 2013 07.52 EDT


The Shenhua coal-to-liquid project discharges wastewater into the hills, which seeps into the ground, in Ordos, Inner Mongolia. Photograph: Qiu Bo/Greenpeace

A project operated by China's largest coal miner, Shenhua Group, has reduced groundwater levels in an Inner Mongolia region and discharged high levels of toxic wastewater, environmental campaign group Greenpeace said on Tuesday.

The report, the first by Greenpeace to single out and publicly challenge one of China's powerful state-owned companies, comes as the country's new leadership steps up its focus on pollution amid growing protests over environmental degradation.

China recently cancelled plans to build a $6bn (£4bn) uranium processing plant after hundreds of protestors took to the streets. Other petrochemical projects have also been cancelled after mass demonstrations.

Shenhua's coal-to-liquid pilot close to Ordos city is one of three such projects operating in China. It has drained more than 50m tonnes of groundwater from the Haolebaoji region since 2006, Greenpeace said in the report.

"We are taking these allegations very seriously ...

Austria: Quiet contender packs a punch
22/05/2013
By Kelvin Ross
Deputy Editor

Austria is putting in place policy, regulations and - crucially - financing, to drive growth in its renewable energy sector, writes Kelvin Ross.

A quick question for you: which European country offers the best investment opportunities for renewable energy? Picked an answer? I bet you went for Germany, maybe Denmark, Norway - or even the UK.
And you would have been wrong on all counts, because the answer, according to a recent report, is Austria. The landlocked country - the 114th biggest in the world, with a population of 8.27 million - came top in the Energy Investment Map, a report complied by UK firm PA Consulting Group.

...

Trends and changes
Analysts at London-headquartered Business Monitor International have recently published a report into Austria's renewables sector, in which they highlight the following key trends and regulatory changes:
- The government raised feed-in tariffs (FiTs) for all renewable energy in July 2011, and extended the duration for guaranteed payments.
- In September 2012, the government terminated the FiT for new building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) plants, with capacities over 500 kW. It introduced a digression mechanic for FiTs, and made a general reduction in the FiT for solar energy.
- The government has decided to halt imports of nuclear power by the end of 2014 and will need to seek other generation sources to fill the gap. The country currently imports just over 3 per cent of its electricity needs, and growth of 4.7 per cent per annum in electricity generation should be sufficient to fulfil its ambition.
- The country recently unveiled a new smart grid project that is aimed at increasing the share of photovoltaic solar power. The €5 million ($6.5 million) project, spanning three years, is expected to lead to the development of 120 photovoltaic systems....

Austria to go 100 percent nuclear-free

This month, Austria went ahead with its plans to ban imports of nuclear power to the country. Electricity is to be labeled to ensure that no power from nuclear reactors is purchased from abroad. The EU is not pleased about the move, which has gone practically unnoticed in reports in English.

In a press release (in German) from July 4, the Austrian Parliament announced the adoption of a ban on nuclear power imports to the country. The policy decision was announced more than a year ago but has only now been made law.

Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner was quick to relativize the matter, however, arguing that Austria has merely implemented mandatory labels on all sources of electricity, including pumped storage, though he admits that, in practice, imports of nuclear power have effectively been banned. Basically, all Austrian power providers have pledged to refrain from purchasing nuclear power from abroad, and starting in 2015 all power will have to be labeled. According to a report at Der Spiegel (in German), imports of mixed origin – only some of which is nuclear – currently make up almost 14 percent of Austria's power supply.

Critics have charged that the labeling itself is impossible because individual electrons cannot be traced back to a source, as the Wall Street Journal argued a few years ago. Yet, at the time, Germany already had its power labeled, which seems to have escaped experts at the most prominent economic daily in the US. Power purchase agreements are signed between entities, so it is generally possible to know what your power mix is.

Austrian ...

As Phone Companies Dismantle Landlines, Utilities Have a Lesson to Learn

The looming utility death spiral looks a lot like the “digital divide” in telecom.


STEPHEN LACEY: JULY 22, 2013
As the economics of distributed energy, storage and demand-side management continue to improve, the warnings about coming radical changes to traditional electric utility business models grow louder.

One of the most recent ominous signs of change came not from the power sector, but from the telecom industry.

AT&T recently said it wants to abandon all of its copper phone lines by 2020. Verizon is close behind.

Of course, phone companies are much further along the trajectory of disruption than utilities. With mobile phones and internet-based phone services making copper landlines obsolete for most Americans (only one quarter of citizens will have a copper line by the end of this year), service companies are faced with difficult choices about how to maintain their infrastructure.

Most experts predict that solar, storage and other distributed energy technologies will soon force utilities to make the same tough decisions ...

Fulton-area nuclear power plant shuts down
July 27
The Associated Press

FULTON, Mo. — A nuclear power plant near Fulton has shut down after a small fire in the turbine building.

Ameren Missouri said in a news release that crews quickly distinguished the Friday night fire at the Callaway Energy Center. The utility stressed that no one was injured and that the public wasn't threatened.

But the release said the center is "out of service in accordance with safety protocols and procedures."

Ameren says an assessment is underway to determine when the facility can return to service....