PHEV Summit Video

Watch it on your iPhone or iPod Touch

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland was the featured closer for the day-long PHEV Summit sponsored by PJM and Ohio State’s School of Engineering, but a wealth of material and lively questions created a need to juggle the schedule which added a postscript to the governor’s short remarks.

Strickland praised the gathering and said it showed a commitment in action “to dream big find solutions and anticipate the future,” even though change, including the way we think, can be difficult, he added.

“To think 130 years after Edison invested in the first commercial incandescent light bulb that now we are talking about commercially viable solutions that rely on electricity for motor vehicles,” he said.

Strickland recounted how recently businessmen from California and Colorado approached him about setting up shop in Ohio to produce busses with batteries that could be recharged in six minutes. Later they said they wanted to attend the Sept. 12 matchup of OSU and USC, but couldn’t find a hotel room.

“I asked if they wanted to stay at the governor’s residence,” Strickland said. “‘Whatever it takes’ ought to be our slogan.”

Ohio and the Midwest should continue to be the focus for the type of industry and work that will emerge from the development of smart grid-smart car technology, the governor said.

“My administration is dedicated to creating opportunities,” he said. “Plug-in vehicles are linked to Ohio’s future. Ohio is committed to investing in these new technologies.”

Ramteen Sioshansi, an Ohio State professor of Integrated Systems Engineering and
Giorgio Rizzoni, CAR’s director and a mechanical engineering professor, provided the conference postscript with a discussion of ongoing research projects.

In the big picture, the projects include an examination of controlled charging, uncontrolled charging and partially controlled charging.

“Charging decisions will have a big influence on net emissions on PHEV use and where stations are located,” Sioshani said.

But all the research only “skims the surface of market issues,” he added.

Future projects will include:

• Emission and costs in different power systems
• Added costs of placing emission caps on PHEV charging
• How consumers would respond to real-time price
• Fleet sizes that can be accommodated with current generator fleets
• Effects of PHEV charging load on future generation and transmission expansion

Mike Tamor, executive technical leader, HEV Technology, of Ford Motor Co.

Mike Tamor executive technical leader, HEV Technology, of Ford Motor Co. said it might sound like he wanted to start a food fight with utilities, but he cautioned about any rush to judgement about electric vehicles being the cars of the future.

Tamor suggested that PHEV might, in the long run, be a more efficient investment than electric-only vehicles.

“We’re not doing the world any favors by moving the carbon footprint from one place to another,” Tamor said. “I’m not saying I’m against it, I’m promoting asking questions.”

Part of his concern is that the auto customer will be forced to pay more for vehicles in the future.

The nature of the fuel will be extremely important for future considerations, he said.

“It’s not at all obvious that tying all of these things together is the right thing to do,” Tamor said.

Mutasim Salman, group manager at General Motors, spoke about the company’s long involvement with hybrid vehicles and work with hydrogen fuel.

Much focus is now also directed toward the development of batteries, including a $43 million investment in a battery manufacturing plant and the company’s work at the Global Battery Systems Lab.

A rapidly increasing world population and the resulting higher numbers of vehicle owners will present many significant problems, Salman said. Technology and the development of better fuel efficiency may eventually help consumers save thousands in fuel costs over the years, he said.

Chrysler Group LLC is big on doing regular customer surveys, said Jay Iyengar, the company’s director and chief engineer.

Comparing 1998 and 2008, fuel economy was very high on the list of concerns for the later, and about in the middle a decade previously.

“What we found was that customers want more fuel economy but were not willing to compromise on anything else,” Iyengar said.

In another sample of 3,000 customers, more preferred hybrids over electric, though the numbers were low for the group identified as thinking that concerns about the environment were overrated. That group liked hybrids over electric by 11 percent to 1 percent respectively. The tree-hugger types preferred hybrids by a 92 percent to 88 percent margin.

Similar studies show that when it comes to PHEV, customers don’t always know what they want, Iyengar said

Adam Szcepanek & Paul Glenny, AeroVironment Inc.

The first presentation after lunch was all about juice, as in the power of the recharged battery.

AeroVironment Inc. presenters Adam Szcepanek and Paul Glenny recounted the rich history of their company, which has been involved in clean transportation since the 1980s.

More recently, the company developed a solar-powered aircraft that flew to 97,000 feet and in 2005 a hydrogen-powered plane that topped 65,000 feet.

The company is all about charging infrastructure, Glenny said.

“We try to address all levels of charging,” Glenny said.

Fast charging is a reality that has already been proven in the industrial market, Szcepanek said.

“We should be charging in minutes, not hours,” he said. “There are thousands of systems already in operation.”

Advances in lithium ion batteries was outlined by John Battaglini, vice president of business development and sales for International Battery Inc.

The company has been able to extend the life of batteries and make them safer, in part through the development of monitoring every cell in every battery pack.

The company has also worked on new applications that can be applied to “heavy” hybrid electric cars and light trucks and even larger fleet programs, he said. The U.S. military is exploring some of these options, too.

Meanwhile, Mark Shanahan, the executive director of the Ohio AIr Quality Development Authority, praised the OSU-PJM conference for addressing the future growth in Ohio.

“The things you are talking about and the integration of these challenges are critical paths to rebuild the Ohio economy,” Shanahan said.

Ohio is one of the largest users of electricity in Ohio and in fact, only 18 nations in the world use more electricity than the state, Shanahan said. Most of that electricity -- 86 percent -- come from burning coal.

“We have to explore new energy technology and think about how to develop these sources,” he said.

One way to do that is to expand the way the supply chain is viewed.

“We’re thinking in much broader definitions that starts with ideas and innovation, the commercial stages, the need of an educated workforce and dealing with new manufacturing processes,” Shanahan said.

The energy and automotive sectors of the state are the underpinnings of the economy for many communities.

“There is enormous potential there but we have to realize it,” he said.

Mark Spitzer, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

One word sums up the ability for designers to make progress in developing smart grid-smart car technology -- understanding. And that comprehension must be forged between the two main players in this process, utility companies and auto makers.

Mark Spitzer, a commissioner for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, delivered that key message at the lunch break of the OSU-PJM’s PHEV Summit.

“The utility sector model does not translate easily to the automotive model and those are the two huge business sectors in this country,” Spitzer said. “They have great difficulty communication with each other.”

But the two may well be wedded by economic, environmental and energy security necessities, Spitzer said. Today’s conference helps that process.

“This university’s work with businesses across the country is very profound,” Spitzer said. “Forging new alliance is very important.”

Both Democrats and Republicans are commissioners on the federal board, but as Spitzer pointed out, “energy is not a partisan issue.”

“We will continue the policy of open access in terms of the grid,” Spitzer said. “That sends a good signal to the industry that we want to solve problems.”

Spitzer said he would like to see more organized markets like PJM and he said the commission is committed to wholesale markets and regional transmission of energy.

Many challenges exist for evolving smart grids and cars, but Spitzer prefers to see opportunities. For instance, batteries are going to be expensive, but this technology should not be only for the rich.

“Electricity is the lifeblood of the country,” Spitzer said. “It’s a U.S. national security issue. We are exporting trillions in wealth to countries to buy oil from governments who are not supportive of our interests.”

Valerie Lemmie, a commissioner for the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, spoke about the exciting times of these developments.

“We’ll see more changes and technological development over the next 20 years that we have in the past 100 years,” she said.

The PUCO strongly supports consumers being able to control usage, she said.

“So we need real-time pricing, it’s the best way to keep energy costs down,” Lemmie said.

Paul Heitmann, business development director, Comverge Inc.

The development and implementation of smart grid-smart car system will take more than just technology, it will require real behavior changes, said Paul Heitmann, director business development for Comverge Inc.

“This stuff has to be transparent and intuitive,” Heitmann said. The younger generation may provide a boost, he said.

Behavior must also link with other important elements, including the supply and management of power and how it is consumed.

There’s a Holy Grail for a smart grid -- renewable energy, distribution, transformer monitoring, control of distribution, intelligent appliances and a transactive demand response.

For the most part, common platforms must be developed for success, he said.

Extremely important is the “timely decision of data between the utility and customer.”

“They’ll need 24 hour price profile for residential real-time pricing,” Heitmann said. “The role of market will be big here, too.”

Aggregation should be considered for its important role.

“We don’t want 25 million customers sending signals, we want it to flow through one company with a coordinated signal,” said Heitmann, who calls electric vehicles “transportation appliances.”

Comverge has submitted a proposal to the U.S. Department of Energy to manage, in an aggregated fashion, 100 electric and hybrid vehicles for a storage capacity of 1.2 million megawatts.

“It will show the ability to have them plugged in to get that storage capacity,” he said.

Scott Moore, vice president, Transmission Systems and Regional Operations, of AEP

Developing a smart grid with plug-in hybrid vehicles is very much about collaboration, said Scott Moore, vice president, Transmission Systems and Regional Operations, of AEP.

“We have to deal on a collaborative basis with technology, public policy and the need to educate customers,” Moore said.

The federal government has expressed strong support for policy that will effect renewable and energy efficiency standards.

One thing to consider is how much land will be required to establish renewable wind and solar energy farms.

“It takes great spaces to accommodate wind farms and there are none here in Ohio yet,” Moore said. “It will take tens of of thousands of acres.”

To make such energy work, there is also a need for an interstate transmission system, and the right incentives to build them, he said. That system does not yet exist.

AEP, which has converted a 2008 bucket truck that has workers in the field buzzing, is talking with regulators in Ohio, Texas and Oklahoma to establish a “right price.”

“A first step is to get time-of-use metering in place,” he said. “If we don’t, there is no incentive for customer to charge at night.”

Meanwhile, Duke Energy has completed a number of studies, including where PHEV owners may want to have charging stations, said Pedram Mohseni, senior engineer, Load Forecasting, of Duke.

“The optimum area would be where its good for the customer and good for us, related to transmission and distribution stations,” Mohseni said. Areas that won’t be promoted are locations where consumers shop, like at grocery stores.

One problem now recognized is that commuters are very likely to plug in vehicles for recharging in the afternoon.

“We don’t want people to plug in in that hour,” Mohseni said. “That peak is unacceptable from a transformer point of few. We want it to shift during the night.

Studies have shown the possibility of a a 6 percent market penetration by 2020 without intervention, but adding some involvement through promotions could increase the penetration level much quicker, by as much as 50 percent more.