How PHEVs Will Save the Grid

One perceived roadblock to widespread use of PHEVs has been the fear that millions of owners could crash the power grid by recharging at times of peak demand. In reality, says the MIT Technology Review, PHEVs "may actually help prevent brownouts, cut the cost of electricity, and increase the use of renewable energy."

According to a forthcoming report from the Pacific Northwestern National Laboratory (PNNL), a Department of Energy lab:

...there is enough excess generating capacity during the night and morning to allow more than 80 percent of today's vehicles to make the average daily commute solely using this electricity. If plug-in-hybrid or all-electric-car owners charge their vehicles at these times, the power needed for about 180 million cars could be provided simply by running these plants at full capacity.

Utilities could thereby sell more power without the added cost of building more plants, while smart chargers and meters could optimize usage and rates by tracking demand in real time. Better yet, a SETI-style concept called "vehicle-to-grid" (V2G) would use millions of PHEV batteries as a buffer to smooth out supply and demand and increase grid stability.

In such a system, plug-in hybrids, rather than being merely an extra burden to the grid, become a much needed way for grid managers to balance the amount of energy generated at any given time to match the amount of energy being consumed. Millions of cars, each with several kilowatt hours of storage capacity, would act as an enormous buffer, taking on charge when the system temporarily generates too much power, and giving it back when there are short peaks in demand.

As if that weren't enough, this buffering effect "would also improve the economics of wind power by making it possible to capture more of the excess power generated on windy days."

[Source: MIT Technology Review via AutoblogGreen]