The Ohio State University

PJM CEO reports state of wind, cars and real-time pricing
Restructuring Today – September 4, 2009

PJM has been taking cues from the federal government and looking into incorporating plug-in hybrids into its grid, CEO Terry Boston told us from the RTO’s summit at Ohio State University yesterday.

Federal policy has been focusing on the smart grid and smart plug-ins along with cutting back CO2 in recent years, Boston said in a phone interview from the PHEV Summit: Driving to Our Energy Future.

“Obviously, with carbon legislation being debated, there are big benefits here of having electrification of transportation,” said Boston, “and we need storage to support the intermittency of wind and solar.”
For plug-ins to have any carbon cutting benefits they will need to be charged with carbon-free generation.
Boston isn’t worried about the cars within PJM boosting emissions from coal plants at all as the RTO can handle 25 million with its off-peak capacity.

PJM has 2,500 mw of wind on its grid now, 1,800 mw under construction and another 42,000 mw in its queue looking to connect.

“My fear is the wind is going to come faster than we can possibly get the storage, including PHEVs, to help make that wind work,” said Boston.

PHEVs aren’t the only storage option. AES has a trailer in PJM’s parking lot with 1 mw worth of batteries and Beacon Power is planning to build a 20 mw flywheel system in its territory.

If 25 million consumers in PJM end up buying the cars that would give grid operators up to 166,666 mw of storage, though people wouldn’t likely offer up their entire battery’s capacity to the grid.

Actually tapping into that storage will require working with aggregators and utilities since to play in PJM’s markets one needs at least 1 mw, the equivalent of 150 plug-ins. Both AEP and Comverge were presenting at the summit to that end.

The storage in plug-ins has the chance to let the grid use wind power more effectively and level out market prices. But if the proper retail policies aren’t in place, millions of people could come home from work and immediately charge their cars, exacerbating peaks.

To avoid that, states will have to develop real-time pricing and PJM has been working with them to try to get that done.

States also need to approve smart metering so grid operators can interact with the plug-ins, though that communication could come from other sources with Google working on a system and other firms looking into it, too, said Boston.

PJM, utilities call collaboration crucial for integrating plug-in vehicles to grid
SNL Power Daily Northeast – September 4, 2009
By Kelly Harrington

Getting the most from the potential seen in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will take collaboration across a broad spectrum of industries and stakeholders, those involved in the development of the technology said. Speaking at a Sept. 3 summit on plugin hybrid electric vehicles in Columbus, Ohio, organized by PJM Interconnection LLC and Ohio State University, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland said plug-in vehicles and the technologies associated with them are linked to the state’s future.

“While plug-in vehicles may not be the only answer to our economic challenges, it is a technology that holds enormous potential as we work to create a brighter future for our state,” Strickland said. “In Ohio, we are committed to investing in these new technologies, and that’s why we want to continue encouraging these long-term partnerships among Ohio’s electric utilities, our automotive suppliers, and certainly our educational institutions.”

PJM President and CEO Terry Boston spoke of the many ways PHEVs can benefit the country, industry and customers. Aside from reduced oil consumption and another step toward energy independence, PHEVs could reduce fuel costs for consumers, from about $2.50 down to 60 cents per gallon-equivalent to charge the car with electricity at off-peak hours in PJM, he said. PHEVs also bring an opportunity to reinvent the auto industry and build a better manufacturing industry in the country. “At the end of the day, this opportunity is one of the largest things I see that could be a paradigm shift for the electric utility industry,” Boston said.

“It takes collaboration with the automobile manufacturers and building a market that has both prices and devices — and controls — so that we don’t have everyone plugging in at the same time with a 100-amp charger across the afternoon peak.” The impact of PHEVs on the electric grid’s distribution system is something utilities including American Electric Power Co. Inc. and Duke Energy Corp. are trying to decipher and prepare for. Both have service territories in Ohio. Scott Moore, AEP’s vice president for transmission systems and regional operations, said the impact from charging PHEVs will be seen most noticeably at the “ZIP code level.” With one PHEV having roughly the same electricity load as two refrigerators, a utility might have to upgrade a transformer to be able to handle three to four houses with customers that want to charge PHEVs.

Just when and where potential PHEV owners will charge their vehicles is something Duke Energy is studying. Pedram Mohseni, senior engineer for load forecasting at Duke Energy, said utilities want to shift charging PHEVs from the high-peak afternoon hours to the lower-demand nighttime hours. “The risk is that we don’t know where people will plug in,” he said. “It’s up to us to sort of change customer behavior.” Moore said it is important to meld plug-in vehicles and wind energy, a renewable source that can be used to charge the vehicles during off-peak hours. He, too, discussed the need for collaboration to develop the technology, given that it will involve the electricity utility, manufacturing, auto and communications industries.

“But more importantly, it takes collaboration from other partners, including the federal and local governments and universities,” he said. “And we can’t leave the customers out in the cold, because that’s really going to be the striking force.”