Hybrid car feeds electricity back into power grid

[Right Lane Cruiser]

Imagine a world where cars not only consume energy, but also become a source of energy for the electricity grid.

Adrian Raschella - ABC News - April 23, 2009

How much of a part of our electric future will this be? --Ed.

Researchers at the University of Technology in Sydney (UTS) say that time is coming, with the launch of the first Australian prototype hybrid car that can feed power back into power grid.

UTS engineers refitted a Toyota Prius, known as SWITCH, with extra batteries and new technology.

The car simply plugs into a regular power point, and recharges its batteries overnight during the cheaper off-peak hours.

It can then feed energy back into the grid during peak times in the day when the car is not being used, reducing the consumer's power bill and providing greener energy into the grid.

UTS research project director Chris Dunstan said it would cost about 50 cents a day to recharge with off-peak power, with a fully charged battery lasting about three hours.

Mr Dunstan said the SWITCH has a fuel economy of less than... [Read More]

[chilimac02]

OK, so if the electricity is cheaper during off-peak hours when you buy it, and then worth more during peak hours when you sell it... You should make a profit right?

Would this be like trading energy? Would the car literally pay for itself? Is this logic too crazy?

[Mr. Pancake]

I don't understand what the point of this concept would be. If you wanted to store energy during off-peak hours and give it back during peak hours why wouldn't someone just fill their garage with batteries? I thought the idea behind a plug in is that it is charged at night when it isn't being used and then you use that charge during the day to get to where you need to go. If your car gives the charge back then you'll be using gasoline if its a plug-in hybrid or you'll be out of luck if its all electric. I would also think that power going from the utility, to your house, to your car and then back again would result in some energy being lost along the way resulting in an inefficient process.

[Right Lane Cruiser]

The idea is to use it as a load balancing device when peak demand occurs. Since most people/businesses don't have large piles of batteries just laying around, the concept revolves around the belief that plug-in vehicles will become a larger and larger percentage of vehicles on the road. Those vehicles remain parked and immobile (for most people) at two times of the day. The middle of the night (when load is already light and there is plenty of capacity for charging batteries) and during the work day (when demand is high there are lots of "extra" powersources parked around businesses).

There are lots of details to be worked out but if the vehicle knows how much charge it needs (customer setable, almost certainly), it can share up until the point at which it has just enough. Likewise, enough smarts in the grid system would allow the battery to drop lower than required but build back up by the time the owner needs to leave for home.

You are correct that there will be conversion losses, but some extra capacity when it is needed most is more important than the fact that not all of what was available during charging comes back.

[ILAveo]

To me one of the killer apps for "plug-in hybrid" cars would be as a mobile power source. Currently the overhead of constantly running a vehicle's big ICE keeps use of jobsite generators common. A well designed hybrid pickup running power off batteries charged from the grid to provide power could be a killer app on many jobsites.