April 10th, 2007
Could You Make Money (albeit, very little) Off Your Plug-In Hybrid?
By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
You could if PG&E’s plans pan out. Most people would charge their plug-in hybrids when? … right, at night, when electricity rates are lower. PG&E has a plan whereby people could charge their plug-in hybrids at night, then sell the power back to PG&E during the day, for a higher rate.
The utility demonstrated on Monday a twist on the concept of the plug-in hybrid, which uses a higher capacity battery than ordinary hybrids like Toyota’s Prius. The idea? To let car owners sell electricity purchased overnight back to the grid for a modest profit or to power their homes in the event of an emergency with the Vehicle-to-Grid program, said Bob Howard, a vice president with PG&E.
There’s still a lot of research that needs to be done in this area, but PG&E is studying how to incorporate the technology into its own service vehicles, Howard said. Source: News.com
We Say: As indicated in the article, infrastructure would have to be figured out (isn’t this always the case!), as most people would, naturally, drive their cars to work — and you need collection points. Still, it’s an interesting concept, though you certainly wouldn’t make up the extra premium (over an already more expensive hybrid) for a plug-in hybrid.
Joe Merchant says:
Wonder if the battery cycling would cost more in reduced battery life than you gain in differential electrical cost profits.
April 10th, 2007 at 11:56 am
ed3 says:
Why bother with the car at all? Install a huge bank of batteries at home. Charge them from the grid at night when rates are cheap, dump the charge back into the grid and recoup.
Heck, why isn’t the electric company doing this themselves??
April 10th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Charles says:
Probably because it would take you 60 years to recoup the cost of the batteries. If you ever could at all.
Not even mentioning the environmental concerns of more enormous batteries.
The idea is to get double-duty out of something that already exists and you already own…
April 11th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Puzzled says:
What night rates?
My electric bill comes with X number of KWatts per month at $$$ per KWatt. What kind of suppliers provide billing by the hour?
April 12th, 2007 at 11:52 am
ed3 says:
I assume Californians. Probably just certain regions of it.
In my area it’s $0.07/kWh, no “peak” periods or anything like that.
April 12th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Gene Hanes says:
To ed3, It would be extremly costly to install a bank of batteries with a useful capacity in your home. Not to mention the space requirements and possible environmental and safety issues. PG&E is evaluating large battery energy storage connected to the grid, I work for PG&E and have been involved with this project. Current state of the art battery tech has a way to go before it becomes economical to install operate and maintain. However, many advances are being made and hopefully large scale battery storage will become practical within the next few decades.
Here is some info on the Large Scale Battery PG&E is currently investigating: http://www.epriweb.com/public/000000000001011966.pdf
April 13th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Project Black Mask Review - Another Scam? says:
Buy Project Black Mask ebook…
Project Black Mask review, looking behind the curtains…
August 7th, 2007 at 3:17 am