The B2B platform for full-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles: Industry News

They will be smart, responsive and interactive. They will incorporate home networks, smart meters, electricity generation by utilities and “home made” renewable electricity (from solar panels for instance) by private homes. They will be able to level out peak demands and electric vehicle (EV) charging. But what exactly are they, who will build them and how are they important for EVs? And once we have them, how do we protect them?

What is a smart grid?

Smart grids are electricity distribution systems that use two-way digital technology to control appliances at consumers' homes to save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability and transparency. They join the electricity distribution with an information and net metering system and achieve this way high efficiency and responsiveness that can deal with sudden power fluctuations and addition or removal of inputs, from very large to very small. The smart grid will even be able to self organise and self repair damaged data transfer thanks to wireless sensor networks and smart meters.

Utilities getting prepared

Smart grids are large projects that encompass and exceed entire national grids. Projects for a European smart grid, for example, consider to integrate North Africa in order to gather the there generated solar power. Single utilities therefore cannot create the smart grid on their own. But they can get prepared.

Utilities are already identifying regions where electric vehicles are likely to accumulate in a first time, and start enhancing the infrastructure. The weakest spot for the moment seem to be the transformers that, in the current state of the infrastructure, could in many cases already be overloaded by one single 220 V EV charger during peak consumption hours. Therefore, the current infrastructure needs to be upgraded both from a capacity standpoint as well as from a flexibility and power routing/control standpoint.

The U.S. utility Edison in Southern California has come up with a plug-in vehicle readiness program, which includes upgrading their grid where they think vehicles are going to cluster; and developing back-end systems so customers understand how pricing changes when they charge at different times.  

In the U.S., the Department of Energy (DOE) funds grid upgrades and changes in the distribution and transmission systems with the DOE Stimulus ARRA Grant. One of the beneficiaries of this grant is EPB in Chattanooga in Tennessee (which is also host for the federally supported $230 million EV Project, putting 300 free EV chargers on its streets). EPB has worked on smart grid solutions since the 1990ies and is rolling out by December an advanced 150 Mpbs fiber-optic smart grid.

Renewable energies to back the system

Adding intelligence and smart power routing capability will however not be enough. Additional capacity will be needed as well. One solution could be auxiliary power sources at the edge of the power network such as residential solar PVCs to feed into the grid. This would help from a capacity standpoint, but using such alternative fuels to move the energy from where it is produced to where it is needed will require a very sophisticated and smart grid.

A very popular idea is still to use electric vehicle charging to level out peak demands and store energy in the vehicles' batteries. The EVs can charge during night time when the grid load is usually low, store the energy and refeed excessive electricity into the system when demand is high - all controlled by the grid. This could boost Demand Response which is a key problem for the utilities. This source of energy can also provide buffer power for smoothing out frequency fluctuations resulting from mismatched demand (generation versus consumption) - and therefore could be used for Demand Dispatch by the utilities.

All of these needs and capabilities will require the integration of sophisticated technologies including communications, wireless, sense-and-control, Internet, mobile computing, cloud computing, Lithium Ion and other battery technology, superconductors, etc.

Security aspects

However, an integrated and to a certain extent intrusive system such as the smart grid has obviously to be protected against sabotage. The U.S. government has therefore earmarked funds for the development of security protocols, with other countries following suit.

A recent report by Pike Research predicts that between 2010 and 2015 around 15% (calculated $21 billion) of smart grid investments will actually be spent on cybersecurity aspects. North America will spend the most with a predicted annual figure of $1.5 billion by 2015, followed by Asia Pacific at $1.2 billion and Europe at $784 million.  

Pike Research identifies as the five most vulnerable spots:

• transmission upgrades
• substation automation
• distribution automation
• electric vehicle management systems
• advanced metering infrastructure

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission work on developing standards that can be integrated with all the types of systems that make up the web of smart grid communications.