Plasma TVs Paved The Way For Electric Cars

Power Hungry Televisions Prove That The Grid Can Handle Rechargeable Vehicles

(AP)  Which draws more juice from the electric grid, a big-screen plasma television or recharging a plug-in hybrid car?

The answer is the car. But the electricity drawn by plasma televisions is easing the minds of utility company executives across the nation as they plan for what is likely to be a conversion of much of the country's vehicle fleet from gasoline to electricity in the coming years.

Rechargeable cars, industry officials say, consume about four times the electricity as plasma TVs. But the industry already has dealt with increased electric demand from the millions of plasma TVs sold in recent years. Officials say that experience will help them deal with the vehicle fleet changeover.

So as long as the changeover from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles is somewhat gradual, they should be able to handle it in the same way, Mark Duvall, program manager for electric transportation, power delivery and distribution for the Electric Power Research Institute, said Tuesday.

"We've already added to the grid the equivalent of several years' production of plug-in hybrids," Duvall said at a conference on electric vehicles in San Jose. "The utilities, they stuck with it. They said, 'All right, that's what's happening. This is where the loads are going, and we're going to do this."'

Automakers, such as General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp., are planning to bring rechargeable vehicles to the market as early as 2010. But speakers at the Plug-In 2008 conference say it will take much longer for them to arrive in mass numbers, due in part to a current lack of large-battery manufacturing capacity. Auto and battery companies still are working on the lithium-ion battery technology needed for the cars, and on how to link the battery packs to the vehicles.

"We see the vehicle penetration levels coming at a rate that's manageable," said Efrain Ornelas, environmental technical supervisor with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in San Francisco. "It's not like tomorrow the flood gates are going to open and 100,000 vehicles are going to come into San Francisco or something like that."

Instead, the vehicles will show up by the thousands throughout Northern California, he predicted. PG&E will be able to track their charging patterns and plan accordingly for the future, he said.

Utility officials say they already are coping with increased demand, especially during peak-use periods in the afternoon and early evening. But the rest of the day, most utilities have excess generating capacity that could be used to recharge cars.

But the preparation doesn't mean electric vehicles will be accommodated without problems and good planning, the officials say.

Since most electric cars will likely be charged during off-peak electric use times, utilities should have no problem generating enough electricity. But since people with the means to buy electric cars likely will live in the same areas, utilities worry about stress on their distribution systems, Ornelas said.

That means consumers will face a lot of choices about when and where they charge up their cars and how much they want to pay for the electricity.

The choice for consumers will come because utilities likely will raise rates to charge cars during peak use times, generally from around noon to 8 p.m., and lower them for charging during low-use hours, industry officials say.

In California, utilities already are installing meters that track use by time of day. PG&E charges 30 cents per kilowatt hour to charge an electric vehicle during peak hours, he said, but charges only 5 cents from midnight to 7 p.m.

Duvall said utilities still have to be wary that high gasoline prices could push sales of rechargeable electric vehicles well into the millions by 2020, because that could stress the system. Other possible problems include electric vehicles getting larger and requiring far more electricity for recharging, and demands from people that their vehicles be recharged quickly, drawing more electricity during peak times.

Also, companies such as the Campbell-based Coulomb Technologies, are starting to develop recharging stations for sale to parking lot operators, office buildings and cities, which will draw more electricity.

There's also talk of the cars storing electricity and sending it back to the power companies during peak times, but officials say that's a long way off.

Industry officials say they can manage the fleet changeover as the cars and the utilities each have computers in place to manage when the cars are recharged.

"From our perspective I think it's something that's really manageable," said Ornelas.

[yongamerica]

Cathode ray tube TVs use a lot more power than Plasma TVs. On top of that, the majority of large screen TVs are LCD, which consumes even less power. More applicable would be comparing the power needs of recharging an electric car to the power needs of AC units.

The grid has been designed to deliver a neighborhood and a home a standard amount of power. Whether this power is used to power the air onditioning or

[hypnotoad72]

Quite. I know LCD TVs the equivalent size of their CRT counterpart use 1/3rd the energy. And compared to laser printers, CRTs use virtually nothing...

Properly installed and maintained nuclear, solar, water, wind power will more than meet future needs. That way, we can still travel and more responsibly use oil too. There are plenty of possible solutions.

[matter77]

This is going to happen so fast it will be unbelievable. Every mom and pop convenience store will have recharge stations out front and you will be able to charge up about as fast as filling your tank now. The car id will be automatically recognized and the cost will be added to your monthly electric bill back home, or to your cc.

Gas stations will disappear like phone booths. No more oil changes or exhaust work. There will be some new problems. But the best thing will be how we tell the goat herders to shove it. This will be the biggest shot in the arm to the US economy EVER. It will cause a thousand other trickle down benefits, too.

[lochlan-2009]

Do we keep the dollar down and commodities (oil) and inflation up, or do we push wreckless mortgaged new home buyers out of their houses?

I think the IRA''''s, hedgefunds, etc.(speculators) have made enough cash for the upcoming baby boomer retiree''''s at the expense of all. Not to mention the 100%plus $$$ increase for houses during the bubble, (mostly owned by this age group) these people made off the next generation, by the Fed lowering the interest rates so low these houses could shoot to the moon in cost, yet still be affordable.
Let''''s pass the bill that bails out the wreckless mortgagees and their banks (who made way to much money on the scam), raise the interst rate, which brings up the value of the dollar (and Americans global wage worth), which brings down the value of commodities,(oil, and also unfortunately flatens houses worth for a couple years). A stimulus package before christmas, twice that of the last one, would probably keep the responsible afloat. Tax Payers get the bill. Then GM can buy the patent for NiMH batteries from Chevron with McCains $300million x-prize, and we can all start driving electric in 2010, the age of green, at $5 a charge.

Oh yeah, if you didn''''t see, GM stock shot up almost a 100% this past week from a $8.81 low, before profit takers took it down a notch. Not news worthy on CBS, CNN, ABC, FOX.

[rf35]

Auto and battery companies still are working on the lithium-ion battery technology needed for the cars, and on how to link the battery packs to the vehicles.

Why? Car (and other) companies need to work toward practical super-capacitors. This is the technology that should be storing power for electric vehicles. What, does it not qualify for Grandpa McCain%u2019s prize since it isn%u2019t technically a battery?? Super-capacitors are not that far in the future if enough effort would be invested in the development. Hybrid battery-capacitor systems can already replace car batteries and are more efficient. GM and Toyota know this. Get the rest of the world on board and quit worrying about whose profits might take a tiny dip. Paradigms, people! Time for a shift!

[Torilin]

Paradigms, people! Time for a shift! rf35--------------you sound like a hippie, not that I don''t agree that we need to change over to electric cars but your delivery is just very 60''s.