GM and the New Plug-In Infrastructure

This week's announcement by General Motors that it has joined with more than 30 utility companies across the U.S. to work on issues related to electric vehicles got a great deal of media play. But the coverage only began to scratch the surface of the complexity of bringing plug-in electric vehicles to market in mass quantities.

In reality, the GM-utility conversation isn't entirely new. It began in January, at a Vehicle Electrification Workshop held at GM's research center in Warren, Michigan. I had the privilege of attending the meeting, which was facilitated by my colleagues at the sustainability strategy firm GreenOrder. The meeting included more than two dozen utility executives, including a team from the Electric Power Research Institute, the industry-funded consortium that served as the co-convener of the meeting.

It was an eye-opener, to say the least. It turns out that building the infrastructure for the plug-in electric vehicle isn't simply a matter of, "Here's a plug, here's a socket. End of story."

First of all, not everyone has a socket — a secure place to park their car and recharge it. Those living in apartment buildings, for example, lack this ability. Even where a plug exists, it may not have sufficient amperage to handle the load. (I'm a good example: I have a socket in my garage, but it's on the same circuit as my bedroom. If you plug in a power-hungry appliance in the garage, TiVo gets grumpy.)

But that's the least of it. Building the plug-in infrastructure involves a mind-numbing array of technical challenges. Among them:

Connections — What does the connection between the car and the socket look like? Can it be standardized across vehicles? Doing so would avoid the rat's nest of incompatible connectors that we've come to expect from cell phones. And such connections will need to carry more than just electricity. They'll also need to enable smart communications, such as the ability to sell energy back to the grid, which involves billing or financial transactions. Incompatible connections may be fine for a phone, but not for a car, where a universal connection standard — akin to computers' USB cables and plugs — would ensure that any vehicle could connect to any plug, anywhere — and do so safely and durably.

Smart charging — In the new world of plugs-ins, your car should be able to sell energy you don't need back to the grid during times of peak power demand, such as in late summer afternoons, when both office buildings and homes are running air conditioning. Today, that peak demand is served by older, usually dirtier and less-efficient "peaker" generators that utilities fire up when needed. A national fleet of a million or more EVs, most sitting idle roughly 90 percent of the time, could serve as a massive national storage device that can be tapped as needed to meet peak demand. But you, the driver, will call the shots, determining how much power, if any, you'd be willing to sell to the grid on a given day. (Of course, your electric utility could call the shots, too, telling you what time of day you can, and can't, recharge your vehicle, at least without paying premium rates.) All this requires new battery architecture, smart metering systems, communications protocols, a standard user interface, and common (and simple) messaging terminology — "bi-direction powerflow management," in the argot of utilities.

Mobile billing — It may be one thing for me to charge my EV at or near my home in Oakland, California. But what if I drive to Reno, Nevada? Will I be able to buy and sell electricity in another state — or even another utility district in my own state? Much like the early days of cell phones, where calling from outside one's home territory resulted in onerous fees — remember roaming charges? — there's the potential for EVs to lose their luster if they can't affordably buy and sell power wherever you go.

Public interface — If EVs are to be ubiquitous, so, too, must be the charging stations — in homes, at work, on downtown streets, in shopping centers, hotels, highway rest stops, parking lots, tourist destinations, and a gazillion other places. These will need to be convenient, well designed, safe, reliable, and secure (so no one can unplug your car in order to charge theirs, for example).

There's much more. There's the need for public education, which requires understanding consumer habits and market expectations. There may need to be new financing mechanisms for customers, especially if plug-ins, as expected, cost more to buy, at least for the first decade or so. There will be infrastructure costs for cities, building owners, and others to build charging stations. What policy measures or subsidies will we need to incentivize them to do so? Will EVs get preferential treatment at toll booths, parking lots, and in HOV lanes? (Will today's Prius-style hybrids eventually lose their current preferential status?) What happens to fuel-economy ratings — will they need to be revised or rethought?

I'm just getting started, but you get the point.

It's not just GM, of course. Every car company large and small that wants to be a player in the EV market will likely need to hew to whatever standards are created — or risk being incompatible with the mainstream, the automotive version of Betamax. GM, in its wisdom, decided it wanted to be at the table where those standards were created.

All of this may seem somewhat futuristic, but it isn't. The first-gen plug-in hybrid vehicles (not counting the relatively small number that have been retrofitted by hobbyists and EV fanatics) will hit the market in 2010 — a scant two years from now — from GM, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen, and others. Given the slow pace of gaining consensus — not to mention building a national infrastructure — the GM-utility partnership could play a key role in advancing the conversation, building some, if not all, of the many pieces we'll need for our petro-free transportation future.

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Comments

[Brendan Dunphy]

Good summary Joel. But there is a danger that by trying to solve all the EV problems before we start we will never start at all. We can only answer many of the questions raised by trial-and-error as consumer behaviour (and corporate too) is unpredictable. Lets ensure that the EV industry gets off the ground as soon a possible and recognise that EV's will be niche to start but standardisation will emerge with experience and feedback, in the USA and elsewhere.

[Rob]

These are all very interesting roadblocks to get to where we want to be, and some I have never thought about.

However, as Brendan mentioned, I don't think these are truly valid reasons to keep us from executing - nor do I think they WILL keep us from getting to where we want to be.

It is great to think through these issues, but we don't need to perfect the process before we implement it. It will evolve, much like the rest of the 'stuff' we have in this world.

I would even argue that some of these technical challenges don't even need to be addressed initially to get things rolling. Selling energy back to the grid, for example. While this would be nice, it isn't a deal stopper and it could easily be phased in with newer models.

I think the important thing is to start moving and while figuring out all of our challenges is important, at some point we just need to take our next right step.

[Felix Kramer]

I echo the first two comments. This is a great summary of the issues involved in what's broadly called "the electrification of transportation." Since I and CalCars.org are situated somewhere along the spectrum of hobbyist-fanatic-entrepreneur-promoter, I'd point out several things:
* The challenges here are about integrating technologies we already have with an existing infrastructure. That's doable.
* Companies like V2Green and Coulomb Technologies are already showing management and control systems and distributed plugging infrastructures.
* The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and others are working diligently to ensure broad standards on physical and electronic interconnections.
* The utilities are making clear that we need to do this step-by-step: first get the carmakers and the utilities talking to each other about designing the vehicles, then move to first implementations of cars linked to "smart homes," then go on to early "demand-response" systems (similar to those we have where utilities can remotely control large industrial power use), with full "vehicle-to-grid" (V2G) integration much further away.
* I recommend listening to a few talks from the recent Plug-In 2008 conference-- video sreams at The Auto Channel http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2008/08/03/095252.html especially: * Mark Duvall, Program Manager, EPRI * Nancy Gioia, Ford Motor Company * Steve Specker, President & CEO EPRI
-- Felix Kramer, Founder, The California Cars Initiative http://www.calcars.org

[Scott]

Good post - I wonder if GM is really the company, alongside utilities, to drive the necessary innovation and integration. Some of the good ideas are clearly valid, like selling power back, but extraneous to the core goal of enabling a new energy distribution network. Innovators can see this, but mature industries, and struggling auto manufacturers, are unlikely agents of change. Instead of focusing on simplest solutions, they layer complexity as a way of stifling change.

[coyotee]

Joel - Your article is a load of clap trap. Before you speak or write again, please take a trip to North Dakota. The infrastructure is already in place. And its very easy to install. Anybody can do it.

[Emil Möller]

my research indicates that by far EV's are the best opportunity of mankind to make bold steps towards untangling the current systemic predicament (conflict, refugees, climate, leadership; fill in your daily news feed)

this is so, since consumers/voters/parents _want_ to be a part of the solution. As long as it doesn't trigger sentiments of regressing in creature comforts, social status, etc.

now with (i) gas prices and emissions, (ii) the viability of the technology of EV's, (iii) corporations seeking a green edge and (iv) governing bodies for various reasons wanting some progress on green / fossil dependency / economy issues, there's a case

the technological hurdles are there, like with anything rather large. But with the clout humans are able to muster and the gains on all fronts ahead, there's a window of opportunity wide open

when we enter this one, we'll regain moral ground with cleaning up our burned fossil mess, supplying the world with low cost alternative sustainable energy and water (a by product of CSP)

and new models that head to the root of the matter: geo politics based on who offers the greenest solutions cheapest, soonest (rather than access to fossils induced, fear generating based politics). Urban sprawl / [car] mobility, tax what you burn, re evaluation of our conceptions of what constitutes a good life,
who am I and what is my work

etcetera, etcetera

for starts: tell your city council to join SF's mayor initiative to soft order PHEV's and EV's. Do this on both sides of the Atlantic and aim at, say, 500.000 vehicles.

deliver this succes to http://www.cop15.dk/en

be sure to allow the attendees at this summit to have asked themselves the questions 'who am I' and 'what is my work'

see http://www.ottoscharmer.com/ on how this could be done

join me on the next on line course at MIT: http://www.presencingglobalclassroom.com/courses/

Emil Möller
Netherlands

[Great Ways to Make Money Online]

I am glad to hear that at least 1 of the BIG 3 are trying to help us all figure out ways to save the planet, but like you said, how do they expect everyone to be able to plug these machines in? If they start mass producing these buggys and actually selling them, we would see dead cars everywhere (dead battery powered cars). I'll stick to my Tahoe with it's 350ci motor that guzzles gas like theres no tomorrow.

[James Wittington]

Now that both running mates have been chosen and the presidential election heats up American's are left to sort out which candidates will better address the ever burdening issue of the energy crisis in America. The energy crisis is directly linked to our economy. Foreclosures are on the rise as well as unemployment. With all the technology available it is incredible to believe we have not come together as a nation to devise a plan. We have become so dependant on foreign oil that we have neglected to fully utilize such natural sources of energy such wind power & solar power. Along with modern technology such as plug in cars, hybrid cars, v2g technology , regenerative braking, and Kwh/gal, MJ/gal technology we still seem to be floundering as a nation as to devising the best plan utilize all that is available to us and lift ourselves out of this mess we are in.

Some interesting sites to share should you be interested...
www.themanhattanprojectof2009.com
www.howmuchenergydoesmycaruse.com