Gearing Up for Electric Vehicles: Tackling the EV Challenges to the Smart Grid - April 2011

Energy usage attributable to electric vehicles could rise 1,700% by 2020, according to a report authored by utility management consulting firm The Shpigler Group and released by the Utilities Telecom Council (UTC). Annual megawatt hour (MWh) usage from electric vehicles could grow from only 146,000 in 2010 to 2.6 million by 2020, the report notes, raising a host of technological and operational issues for the nation’s electric utilities, particularly when it comes to modernizing and upgrading utility communications and information technology.

The report, Gearing Up for Electric Vehicles: Tackling the EV Challenges to the Smart Grid, also notes that this surge in EV usage could foster a 61-fold annual reduction in CO2 emission reductions, with almost 2.6 million tons in emissions reductions that year. To accommodate this game-changing shift in electricity usage, a number of key issues must be addressed, including improved battery performance, continued exploration of vehicle-to-grid technology that can utilize EV batteries as grid storage devices and infrastructure innovations that support the peak load changes that EVs will introduce to the grid. Chief among the innovations are improvements in communications and IT technologies, which are need to better plan and operate the electric delivery system, particularly meter data and network management systems.

Download or order your copy of this invaluable report today and gain first-hand insight into the range of factors that will dictate how quickly EV adoption will occur and what utilities must plan for now in order to get ready for the EV revolution.