Antinuclear

With good management, electric cars could mean cheaper and more efficient infrastructure

How EVs could save the grid – and lower energy bills , Reneweconomy By Giles Parkinson   27 January 2012 The world’s electricity grids are facing a dramatic makeover in coming decades as the rapid expansion of renewable energy, distributed generation, battery storage and smart technology takes hold. It’s going to be a challenge to the energy industry’s operations and to their business models – as big as the challenge that hit the world’s telecom networks more than a decade ago with the success of the mobile phone.

It may be, however, that the introduction of the electric vehicle in great quantities could be a saviour to much of the established infrastructure, protecting assets that could otherwise be stranded and leading to an overall reduction in electricity costs.

The Australian Energy Markets Commission, which is responsible for setting the electricity market rules, released an issues paper this month to help prepare for the sort of changes that might need to be implemented if the uptake of EVs takes off.

It came to two initial conclusions: Badly managed, the rollout of EVs could have a severe impact on electricity costs if battery charging times were not controlled and this resulted in large addition to peak demand.

However, if managed properly, the rollout of EVS could lead to a noticeable reduction in energy costs because it would increase load factors at night time and spread the fixed cost of the network over a larger consumer base. And its storage capacity has the potential to put energy back into the grid at times of peak demand and help reduce wild fluctuations in pricing.

The paper includes work done by the consultancy group AECOM, which finds that the difference in costs to the grid between controlled and uncontrolled charging could be as much as $12 billion if the take up of EVs is high, described as 47 per cent of new vehicles sales by 2020 and 54 per cent by 2030…..

The AECOM is broadly consistent with other studies on the rollout of EVs, including those by AGL Energy, and the Australian Energy Market Operator, although these analyses do inevitably differ on predicting the extent of the uptake of the EV – and in the case of AEMO, the impact on peak demand. The study by AGL, which has a commitment to provide renewable energy to support the rollout of the Better Place network due to begin in Canberra this year, also found that a broad uptake of EVs would have a relatively minimal impact on the nation’s electricity market.

It did conclude, however, that “the correct mix of pricing, policy and regulatory settings should ensure a smooth transition to the decarbonisation of the transport fleet.” And key amongst this is the issue of time of use pricing, among others, which the utility says is essential if the country is to take advantage of smart meters, EVs and distributed generation.

AGL agreed with AECOM in concluding that there should be more than sufficient existing generation, transmission and distribution network capacity to manage the demands of the EV, “provided that the combination of smart meters and critical peak pricing form part of the energy market policy fabric for EV owners.”

It also says that the combination of EVs and time of use pricing could maximize the use of network and generation infrastructure, and this in turn could lower unit costs for all consumers. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/how-evs-could-save-the-grid-and-lower-energy-bills

January 27, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, technology