This is a long-awaited next step on
"Vehicle-To-Grid:" to actually get some
V2G-capable cars on the road for testing. It's
big news that a demonstration fleet of six Ford
Escape Hybrids with the hardware and software to
enable intelligent two-way energy exchanges
between the cars and the power grid will be on the road this year!

Consortia around the country have been racing to
make this happen: the first one will be in
Colorado. It's a joint collaboration between Xcel
Energy; Hybrids Plus Inc. in Boulder, Colo.;
V2Green Inc. in Seattle, Wash.; and the U.S.
Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.

Press release and multiple links below, but first
a quick overview. Here's how we talk about V2G --
and how we don't want to overpromise:

"V2G demonstrations offer a peak at a very
different future when two distinct industry
sectors -- power generation and transportation --
begin to merge. This 'electrification of
transportation' can improve the efficiency of
utility plants, reducing their operating costs.
And best of all, when utilities have what they've
always lacked -- distributed storage -- they can
turn intermittent renewable energy like
night-time wind into reliable 24/7 energy sources."

More details: It can enable utilities to size
their facilities efficiently through
"valley-filling" (charging at night) and
"peak-shaving" (sending power back to the grid on
hot summer afternoons). It can give utilities new
ways to provide "regulation services" (keeping
voltage and frequency stable) and provide
"spinning reserves" (meet sudden demands for
power). Ultimately it can help make the grid more
reliable (V2H-- vehicle-to-home leading to
neighborhood/community uninterruptible power).
And by enabling utilities to use their expensive
facilities optimally, it could ultimately reduce energy costs for everyone!

CAUTIONS: It's important not to overpromise the
benefits or the time-frames. For instance:
* For a while, we talked about the idea of
utilities operating secondary stationery storage
battery banks from used PHEV batteries, which
could reduce initial battery costs. We're hearing
that at least some utilities do not expect ever
to get in that business (though someone might).
* While carmakers are very interested in this
opportunity (e.g. Ford's exploratory partnership
with Southern California Edison and Toyota's with
Electricite de France -- see back postings at
CalCars-News), so far it hasn't been easy for
them to model benefits and take V2G into account in their business plans.
* A few years ago, AC Propulsion (whose
controllers, including those licensed to Tesla,
are all V2G-capable) and Prof. Willett Kempton
at the University of Delaware introduced the
concept of car-owners being paid to "rent" their
parked plug-in cars' batteries to utilities for
V2G -- for potentially thousands of dollars a
year. Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Jon
Wellinghoff dubbed PHEVs "cash-back hybrids" for
this opportunity. Utilities and researchers are
now focusing in on how realistic this is.
Eventually we'll see projections that take into
account how utilities actually operate.
* What has to happen BEFORE V2G? Hundreds and
then thousands of cars have to demonstrate
benefits; V2G-capable cars have to be mass
produced; software, hardware and interconnection
standards have to be established. This will all
require buy-in from automakers, utilities and government regulators.


LINKS:
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/10/software-startu.html
Software Startup Targets Vehicle-to-Grid Management
Green Car Congress 5 October 2007 [about V2Green Company]
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/archives/123044.asp#extended
Seattle Post-Intelligencer VC reporter John Cook
iinterviews V2Green's Dave Kaplan

http://earth2tech.com/2007/09/13/three-thoughts-on-smart-charging-for-plug-in-ve\
hicles/
Three Thoughts on Smart Charging for Plug-In Vehicles
Earth2Tech.com clean-tech blog 13 September

http://www.pge.com/news/news_releases/q3_2007/070912.html
PG&E and Tesla Motors Co-Pilot Vehicle-to-Grid Research
September 12, 2007 PG&E Press release

http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/25/technology/green_power.biz2/index.htm
Green power: How California's PG&E is
transforming itself into the very model of a modern utility company.
Business 2.0 Magazine October 2007

ONE MORE LINK [after the press release]: in an
amazing contrast, read how a consortium of 100
midwest utilities and the US Department of Energy
has already committed $200M to a far-more
expensive and much less efficient way of solving this problem!


Xcel Energy announces six-month test drive
of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles

DENVER - Six plug-in hybrid electric vehicles
(PHEVs) will be on the road by the end of 2007 as
part of a demonstration test of vehicle-to-grid
(V2G) technology by Xcel Energy. The goal is to
determine how consumers can use the vehicles to
significantly lower greenhouse gases, shore up
electricity grid reliability and prove PHEVs are
a viable alternative to today's carbon-emitting cars.

The project, which will convert six Ford Escape
Hybrids to PHEVs equipped with V2G technology so
each can charge and discharge power to and from
the grid, is one of the nation's first real-world
demonstrations of the emerging technology.

With operations in eight states, Xcel Energy will
study how the vehicles perform in varied
geographic regions and climates over a six-month
period. Three company employees will serve as
test drivers, using three of the PHEVs in typical
home settings. The remaining three PHEVs will be used in the company's fleet.

"With every U.S. home connected to the
electricity grid, vehicle-to-grid technology
could be key to meeting our growing energy
needs," said Michael Lamb, executive director of
Xcel Energy Utility Innovations. "This project
will allow us to explore how PHEVs can become an
integrated part of a 'smart house' and our vision
of the smart grid energy system of the future -
one that allows customers and utilities to work
together to balance the power grid, lower
greenhouse gas emissions and improve our nation's energy security."

Xcel Energy's demonstration will build on its
previous PHEV impact study
(http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy07osti/41410.pdf) by
examining how drivers - and their vehicles - will
react and perform in real-world settings. The
project will explore the potential benefits of
widespread PHEV use including: reducing
petroleum-related emissions and greenhouse gases,
enhancing energy security by reducing dependence
on foreign oil, improving the reliability and
cost-effectiveness of the electricity grid,
exploring ways to make PHEVs more accessible and lowering vehicle fuel costs.

The project is a joint collaboration between Xcel
Energy; Hybrids Plus Inc. in Boulder, Colo.;
V2Green Inc. in Seattle, Wash.; and the U.S.
Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.

To make the cars V2G capable, each will be
equipped with a V2Green Connectivity Module that
controls vehicle charging, collects data and
communicates via a cellular modem; and an
Inverger (a 6-kilowatt inverter and charger in a
single unit) from Hybrids Plus. In addition,
Hybrids Plus will replace the cars' nickel-metal
hydride batteries with a lithium-ion phosphate
battery pack. V2Green will also supply server
software enabling remote control of smart charging and V2G functions.

By outfitting the vehicles with these components,
Xcel Energy can remotely control the battery
cycles in each vehicle by requesting that each
postpones charging or begins discharging energy back to the electricity grid.

"We're committed to advancing new transportation
technologies to bring the environmental and
economic benefits of PHEVs to our customers,"
said Ray Gogel, Xcel Energy chief administrative
officer. "We take our environmental commitments
seriously, and V2G technology holds great promise
in reducing greenhouse gases and helping our grid
work smarter. We're excited to advance this
innovative technology, which we believe holds
significant promise for the future."

Xcel Energy is dedicated to improving the
environment and providing the leadership to make
a difference in the communities it serves. The
company is listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability
Index for the second consecutive year. Xcel
Energy is the nation's No. 1 wind power provider.
The company operates Windsource, the nation's
largest voluntary wind energy program in terms of
customers. Xcel Energy is a leader in emissions
reduction programs and in developing new
technologies and tools to help bring clean,
renewable energy onto its system at an affordable cost for its customers.
______________________________________________

Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) is a major U.S.
electricity and natural gas company with
regulated operations in eight Western and
Midwestern states. Xcel Energy provides a
comprehensive portfolio of energy-related
products and services to 3.3 million electricity
customers and 1.8 million natural gas customers
through its regulated operating companies.
Company headquarters are located in Minneapolis.
More information is available at www.xcelenergy.com.

Xcel Energy Media Relations
(303) 294-2300
www.xcelenergy.com

[URLs of other partners:]
http://www.hybrids-plus.com Hybrids Plus
http://www.v2green.com V2Green
http://www.nrel.gov/vehiclesandfuels/hev/plugins.html NREL

FINAL LINK: current "kludge" approaches to energy storage validate the model:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_41/b4053092.htm
Business Week October 8, 2007: Catching The Wind In A Bottle
A group of Midwest utilities is building a plant
that will store excess wind power underground

The future is taking shape under the windswept
corn and soybean fields outside Dallas Center,
Iowa. At the Iowa Stored Energy Park, a coalition
of local utilities is grappling with one of the
thorniest challenges in the field of renewable
power: how to store the excess energy windmills
create when demand is low so it can be used later, when the need is greater.

The group is building a system that will steer
surplus electricity generated by a nearby wind
farm to a big air compressor (diagram). Connected
to a deep well, the compressor pumps air into
layers of sandstone. Some 3,000 feet down and
sealed from above by dense shale, the porous
sandstone acts like a giant balloon. Later, when
demand for power rises, this flow is reversed. As
the chamber empties, a whoosh of air flows back
up the pipe into a natural-gas-fired turbine,
boosting its efficiency by upwards of 60%.

This trick does more than capture wind that might
otherwise be wasted. It also lets the utility
sell the stored energy when demand is peaking and
prices are highest, says Kent Holst, the park's
development director. Backed by funding from the
Energy Dept., more than 100 municipal utilities
in Iowa, Minnesota, and the Dakotas are ponying
up a total of $200 million to build the
268-megawatt system. Begun in 2003, the project
is on track to go online in 2011.

Although Iowa's compressed air energy storage
(CAES) project will be the first of its type to
bank green energy, it may soon have company. In
West Texas, TXU CORP. is working with Shell
Wind­Energy to build a massive installation of
windmills with 3,000 megawatts of capacity. The
companies hope to connect the wind farm to a CAES
system that will pump air into underground salt
domes. Other potential CAES sites are being
explored in New Mexico and the Gulf Coast.
Nationally, the Electric Power Research Institute
estimates that more than 85% of the U.S. has
subterranean features that could support the technique.

For now, CAES is the lowest-cost way to store
very large volumes of power, according to the
Energy Dept.'s Sandia National Labs. While
American Electric Power Co. (AEP ) and Siemens
Wind Power (SI ) are testing truck-sized
batteries with capacities of amegawatt or more,
big batteries rely on costly, exotic chemicals.
CAES, in contrast, combines less pricey
industrial machinery with the earth's free
storage capacity. And while battery life is
measured in hours, the geology below the Iowa
project can store about 20 weeks' worth of air supply.

Despite being unpredictable, wind is the nation's
fastest-growing form of renewable energy. In the
past five years output from wind farms has grown
tenfold, to more than 12,000 megawatts, or about
1% of total U.S. supply. Its fans predict that
someday wind could supply 10% or more of the
nation's electricity. That's already the case in Spain and Denmark.

Perhaps subterranean storage techniques will help
wind power reach its potential. "Near term, it
has the best chance of being adapted by the
utilities," says Sandia stored-energy expert Garth Corey.




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Felix Kramer fkramer@...
Founder California Cars Initiative
http://www.calcars.org
http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html
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