Electric cars may hold solution for power storage

By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times

The thick blue cables and white boxes alongside an industrial garage here look like those in any electric-car charging station. But they work in a way that could upend the relationship Americans have with energy.

The retrofitted Mini Coopers and other vehicles plugged into sockets where a Chrysler plant once stood do more than suck energy out of the multi-state electricity grid. They also send power back into it.

With every zap of juice into or out of the region's fragile power network, the car owner gets paid.

The pilot project here at the University of Delaware has had enough success to set off a frenzy of activity in the auto and electricity industries, particularly in California, where Gov. Jerry Brown's transportation plan this year promoted "vehicle-to-grid" technology.

Entrepreneurs and government agencies see the technology as a possible solution to a vexing dilemma: how to affordably store renewable energy so it can be available when it is needed, not only when the wind blows or the sun shines.

"This is a fascinating option," said Robert Weisenmiller, chair of the California Energy Commission. "The technology works. You can do this. The question is … what do we need to do to make it happen?"

California has the nation's most aggressive goals for renewable power and also wants to put 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road over the next decade. State officials say vehicle-to-grid technology could point toward a way to accomplish both goals faster, for less money.

The idea is that utilities would pay vehicle owners to store electricity in the batteries of electric vehicles when the power grid has a surplus and drain electricity back out of them when demand rises.

The plan takes advantage of a key fact about cars: They spend most of their time parked. The technology makes idle vehicles a source of storage for utilities and cash for car owners.

The "Cash Back Car" is how the concept is described by Jon Wellinghoff, the recently retired chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. "It provides another incentive for people to buy electric cars," he said.

The technology could solve a potentially serious problem. The power grid, a massive tangle of power plants, transformers and thousands of miles of wire, needs to maintain a steady and balanced flow of power. Sudden surges threaten crashes that can cause blackouts. That makes the stop-and-go nature of energy from the wind and sun a constant source of worry.

A cost-effective method of storing renewable energy and controlling its flow into the system has long eluded the energy industry, which has taken to calling storage the "Holy Grail."