Utility Business Cases

Moderator: Bill Zobel, San Diego Gas & Electric

Efrain Ornelas
Pacific Gas & Electric

• Largest utility, serving 15 million people, 70,000 square miles northern and central California
• Largest alternate fuel vehicles in the nation, 1425 vehicles mainly LNG
• 21 states have adopted RPS
• PGE is at 14-16% renewable

Mike Ligett
Progress Energy

• SE Utility covering 3M customers in Florida, Carolinas
• Coal 46%, Nuclear 35%, Gas/Oil 18%, Hydro 1%
• Just enacted RPS so this will increase renewable usage in the future
• UNC study shows by 2030 will have 1 million EVs
• One PHEV per household would require 6% more electricity than forecast, even if all all vehicle miles were electric it would only require 15% more electricity
• They will not be a leader in this area since it won't have that big an impact
• in 2020, with 6% penetration of PHEV-40s, they would use about the same amount of electricity as microwaves and hair dryers use
• They are still far away from needing a smart grid, more concerned on making sure home charging infrastructure is safe
• If charging were not "smart" but simply delayed to offpeak time, then load would not have much affect on grid
• By 2030 they will probably need to control all high power devices: A/C, water heater, PHEV, clothes dryers, refrigerator, oven
• If revenues from PHEV were counted as normal revenue, there would be no incentive to participate since the regulatory commission would just required lower rates. So revenues from PHEV should be placed in a separate account to be used for other purposes. 

Mike Rowand
Duke Energy Corp

• Duke serves 4 million accounts in 5 states, 28,000 MW of regulated generating capacity, mainly nuclear and coal, and rates are 20% below the national average
• Utilities concerned with PHEVs because distributed energy storage is a disruptive technology
• They have 1,000 MW pumped storage capability which is valuable, but PHEV small scale storage is disruptive
• A 40kWh to 50kWh EV is the same or twice the amount of usage as a house, so this could make a big difference in usage
• Utility systems and processes designed for stationary, predictable loads, mobile loads disrupt this
• Plug-in vehicles will be the "killer app" that will demonstrate the value of the smart grid
• Program areas: vehicle development, enabling technology, enabling systems, public education, market analytics, infrastructure, public policy, economic development
• Customers don't want utilities to control their thermostat because they are used to controlling. But if the utilities ask to control EVs, then there won't be as much resistance since there is no history.
• First capacity impact of PHEVs will be local distribution. EVs won't be scattered uniformly across the territory but likely concentrated in certain areas
• Unintended consequences: road taxes from gasoline, impact on other businesses (convenience stores)

Questions

• Value of EV ancillary services? Answer: Hard to determine because first need to get volume up to MW blocks be useful, but once it keeps increasing then it will reach a point where value of ancillary services will go down.