With governments under mounting pressure to meet radical targets on carbon emission reductions, the search is on for new clean technologies that can improve energy efficiency and reduce consumption. In some countries – such as the UK, for example – where government is incentivizing electric car users with an exemption from both road taxes and London’s congestion charges. But many potential customers are far from convinced that an electric car will ever be as convenient to use as a conventional vehicle. Dr. Mark England, CEO of Sentec, explores the infrastructure that will be required and explains the role Smart Grid technology will play in putting electric cars on the road.
Dr. Mark England
Sentec
With most major car manufacturers parading their latest eco-friendly vehicles, it seems that the electric car is on the verge of achieving a long-awaited breakthrough. The rapid progress in vehicle design must be met by improved infrastructure, and intelligent charging provides a raft of possibilities for environmental efficiency. An electric vehicle used for around 20 miles per day consumes about the same amount of energy as an average house over the same period. The grid is not designed for the rapid addition of the equivalent of several houses to each substation, and without careful management of when the charge is delivered, an electric vehicle could cause more problems than it solves.
Publicly available day-time charge points – enabling slow charging during the day – alleviate the demand from the evening rush. However, public trust of electric vehicles will require the availability of a dense, robust charging network, where all charging points will be compatible with all cars. City driving is the logical starting point, as electric vehicles show the best advantage over combustion in stop-start scenarios, and charging points can be relatively close together. Charging posts outside cities must follow, enabling longer journeys that are always within range of a charge.
Public posts can be commissioned and maintained easily, and the cost of the charger and groundworks is effectively spread across the many users. The greater challenge comes from domestic charging; here, forward-thinking utility companies have the ability to appeal to a new market. Smart meters allow them an interface into the home, and a potential gateway for electric vehicles to manage their charging patterns. Customers will have far greater control over energy consumption, and tariffs will be offered that favor charging at sensible times. And peak power, the key driver of the necessary grid capacity, will be reduced.
With a dynamic and responsive smart grid forming the backbone of the electric car infrastructure, renewable energies will be better positioned to do much of the recharging. Until now, a major sticking point for many would-be electric car owners is that most of the electricity used to charge their cars is generated by coal-fired power stations, meaning that only negligible CO2 savings are generated relative to a comparable conventional car. However, electric cars can be compatible with energy produced from intermittent sources like wind power. Wind tends to be stronger and more frequent at night, which coincides conveniently with the extra grid capacity needed for charging vehicles at off-peak demand.
Because cars can store energy it is possible to match their charging regime to short term forecasts on the availability of intermittent forces, and then draw the energy from their batteries either to travel or, if the consumer does not need it, to power other domestic appliances or even as a source of electricity for the local grid.
Burgeoning vehicle-to-grid technology means that groups of vehicles can also be used as energy storage assets by utility companies. When the grid is short of energy, a signal would be sent to the car via its smart connector, causing surplus energy stored in the car’s battery to energy to pass back to the grid from the vehicle. This means that the owner can sell this surplus energy back to the electricity company, smoothing fluctuations between supply and demand.
These types of use mean that the battery itself is no longer just a means of powering the car, but a valuable asset with its own identity. One implication of this is that energy companies may need to consider the supply of energy to an electric vehicle as a separate account, with separate tariffs and options. Because cars will be charged and discharged at many different locations, the battery’s identity must be tied to the owner’s energy account across a potentially huge network. A positive side effect of this is that battery manufacturers, working closely with utility companies, will be able to use smart grid technology to identify batteries with their owners remotely, giving them the ability to detect and investigate any performance problem.
A less positive side effect (at least for consumers!) is that accounting for electric vehicle energy use separately allows policy makers to tax the revenue from these accounts to fund road building and improvements. While it’s unpalatable, there is no denying that phasing out the use of fossil fuels for transport will eventually leave government with a large revenue hole that will need to be addressed.
A wide-scale roll out of electric cars is still some way off. But as technology continues to improve, and prices edge within the reach of the average consumer, these vehicles will play an important part in helping the nation achieve its carbon-reduction targets. Making electric cars a success needs a coordinated, joined-up effort among policy-makers, scientists, car manufacturers and utilities to ensure that smart technology and appropriate business models are in place to support this low-carbon technology in delivering its full environmental promise.
They also need to work together to secure full buy-in and engagement from the world’s increasingly carbon-conscious consumers. Smart meters – the heartbeat of the fast-approaching Smart Grid architecture – will enable car owners and utilities to monitor power demands in real time, creating a far more efficient system of electricity pricing and supporting a long-term change in the way we consume it.
About the Author
Dr. Mark England joined Sentec in 1998 and has been responsible for setting the strategic roadmap of the company and the development of the broad and deep commercial relationships necessary to grow the business. Mark’s experience includes the full cycle of product development from the initial creation and nurturing of ideas, identification and protection of key intellectual property, right through to high-volume product manufacture. He has also taken a leading role in developing and maintaining relationships with key partners in the energy sector, with a significant improvement in the quality and quantity of license partners over the past six years. Mark holds a PhD in Physics from Cambridge University in Cambridge, England.
