Honda is introducing a new Honda SmartCharge beta program that allows electric vehicle customers to reduce the environmental footprint of charging their car while earning monetary rewards. Honda is the first automaker to introduce a program of this kind, and will roll out the program to Honda Fit EV customers.... Read more →

Kokam Co., Ltd, successfully deployed for Alinta Energy, a leading Australian utility, a 30-megawatt (MW) system / 11.4-megawatt hour (MWh) Energy Storage System (ESS), the largest lithium-ion battery deployed for industrial application in Australia. The ESS features Kokam’s high power Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) Oxide battery technology, and is... Read more →

A UPS-led consortium has deployed new smart-grid charging technology in London that overcomes the challenge of simultaneously recharging an entire fleet of electric vehicles (EVs) without the need for the expensive upgrade to the power supply grid. Recharging a fleet of electric vehicles can be extremely expensive as it often... Read more →

Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. and Toyota Motor Corporation have agreed to start a verification project that entails construction of a large-capacity storage battery system that reuses electrified vehicle batteries, as well as examination of the recycling of used batteries. The two companies aim to reuse batteries collected from electrified... Read more →

An influx of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) charging without coordination could prove challenging to the nation’s electric grid, according to research conducted by the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Dr. Matteo Muratori, a transportation and energy systems engineer at NREL, developed highly resolved models of residential... Read more →

Ricardo is supporting a trial run by UK Power Networks into using smart grid technology to unlock spare capacity for increased electric vehicle use—maximizing the power available from existing infrastructure while avoiding costly network reinforcement or substation replacement. The project, called Active Response, will trial a responsive, automated electricity network... Read more →

Connected Energy, a UK provider of site-integrated energy storage solutions, is heading a £1.3-million (US$1.7-million) research collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover, WMG at University of Warwick and Videre Global to establish key components of a second-life battery value chain. The project is co-funded by an Innovate UK grant, awarded in... Read more →

Enel S.p.A., through its US subsidiary EnerNOC, has acquired California-based eMotorWerks, a North American supplier of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, called JuiceBox, and owner and operator of JuiceNet, an Internet of Things (IoT) platform for the smart management of EV charging and other distributed energy storage facilities. Through the... Read more →

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) has launched a Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) pilot, with the first charge point already being utilized with Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV’s in-vehicle storage batteries. Using V2G-technology, peak demand on the electricity grid can be better balanced, by allowing electric vehicles to not just take power from the grid, but... Read more →

Stanford researchers have developed a sodium-ion battery (SIB) that can store the same amount of energy as a state-of-the-art lithium ion, at substantially lower cost. As reported in a paper in Nature Energy, the Stanford team achieved four-sodium storage in a Na2C6O6 electrode with a reversible capacity of 484 mAh g−1,... Read more →

A new initiative in the UK is proposing opening up data from local electricity substations to provide network operators with much-needed information about levels of capacity for charging EVs on local electricity networks. Currently, asserts the OpenLV project, electricity network operators don’t have enough information about how much spare capacity... Read more →

Hyundai Mobis has developed an on-board, bi-directional charger for plug-in vehicles. The bi-directional onboard charger (OBC) allows the vehicle to supply electricity in its battery to the grid. The power supplied by the vehicle can also be used as emergency power in homes. If more than enough power is supplied,... Read more →

Groupe PSA, Direct Energie, Enel, Nuvve, Proxiserve and the Technical University of Denmark have launched the GridMotion project with the aim of evaluating possible savings achieved by real-life electric vehicle (EV) users through the implementation of smart charging and discharging strategies for EVs. An electric vehicle driver’s electricity bill could... Read more →

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) Federal Highway Administration will award (693JJ317NF0001) up to $60 million to projects to develop model deployment sites for large scale installation and operation of advanced transportation technologies to improve safety, efficiency, system performance, and infrastructure return on investment. DOT is requiring a minimum cost... Read more →

ChargePoint, the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) charging network, is rapidly expanding both its technical capability with the introduction of its modular Express Plus EV fast-charging platform (up to 400 kW) (earlier post) as well as its geographic reach with its expansion into Europe (earlier post). The recent expansions of... Read more →

AeroVironment and eMotorWerks, a provider of intelligent and cloud-connected smart-grid charging solutions, are partnering to deliver smart advanced EV charging solutions. By integrating eMotorWerks’ JuiceNet smart-grid EV charging platform into AeroVironment’s line of consumer and OEM EV charging solutions, both companies aim to provide increased charging capabilities to customers and... Read more →

Nissan, Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, PSA Groupe, NUVVE, Frederiksberg Forsyning, Enel, Insero and DTU (Technical University of Denmark) Electrical Engineering (PowerLabDK) are partnering in the Danish project Parker to develop a universal definition for grid integration for electric vehicles. Parker’s objective is to validate that series-produced electric vehicles—as part... Read more →

Three investor-owned California utilities—Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)—have submitted applications to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) outlining programs and investments aimed at achieving multiple electric transportation and emission-reduction goals set by the governor and state agencies. The... Read more →

Nissan and power management leader Eaton are broadening their portfolio of xStorage Home residential energy storage solutions—which can use second-life EV batteries—by introducing a range of six product configurations, giving consumers greater choice to meet their energy needs. This announcement comes as pre-orders of xStorage Home begin today in the... Read more →

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced that Columbus, OH has been selected as the winner of the US Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge. (Earlier post.) As winner of the Challenge, Columbus will receive up to $40 million from US DOT and up to $10 million from Paul G. Allen’s... Read more →

Partners Volkswagen AG, Lichtblick SE, SMA Solar Technology AG and the Fraunhofer Institute Wind Energy and Energy System Technology (IWES) have submitted the final report from the INEES research project (Intelligent integration of electric vehicles into the power grid for the provision of system services). The findings of the report... Read more →

The California Energy Commission is awarding the University of California, Berkeley $1.5 million to develop an advanced smart charging technology that maintains plug-in electric vehicle consumer needs while reducing charging loads, to achieve electricity grid benefits. The project will focus on controlling the charging of PEVs in residential and small... Read more →

Daimler AG, with its wholly owned subsidiary ACCUMOTIVE, and enercity (Stadtwerke Hannover AG) will begin construction of a new stationary energy storage system (ESS) this year; the facility also functions as a spare parts storage facility for electromotive battery systems. Around 3,000 new battery packs, destined for the current smart... Read more →

At the 21st UN Conference on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris this week, Nissan announced the development of a Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) system which will allow drivers to operate as individual energy hubs with the ability to store, use or return electricity to the grid. Nissan will commence Smart Grid trials... Read more →

The world’s largest 2nd-life battery storage unit will soon go into operation in the Westphalian town of Lünen. A joint venture between Daimler AG, The Mobility House AG and GETEC, it will be operated from the beginning of next year at the site of REMONDIS SE and marketed in the... Read more →

Following the Transatlantic Economic Council’s decision to promote electric vehicles and smart grid interoperability, on 29 October the European Commission inaugurated the European Interoperability Centre, a laboratory operated by the JRC. Together with its partner facility in the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, the new lab will ensure... Read more →

A research demonstration unveiled at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (DOE ORNL) combines clean energy technologies into a 3D-printed building and a 3D-printed natural gas-powered hybrid vehicle to showcase a new approach to energy use, storage and consumption. The Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy (AMIE) demonstration, displayed at... Read more →

The BMW Group Technology Office, together with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), have launched an 18-month pilot of the BMW i ChargeForward Program in the San Francisco Bay Area. The program is now issuing calls to participating BMW i3 drivers in the Bay Area to request the interruption of... Read more →

The Audi e-gas plant in the city of Werlte in Lower Saxony (earlier post) produces CO2 neutral-fuel (synthetic methane from water, renewable electricity and CO2); it now also contributes toward stabilizing the public power grid. After successfully completing a test sequence, the plant is now qualified for participating in the... Read more →

The California Energy Commission has awarded a $1.5 million grant to the Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE) to lead development of an advanced management platform for integrating electric vehicle (EV) charging with utility-scale energy systems. CSE will work closely with KnGrid, a leader in vehicle-grid communications, to create a standardized... Read more →

Daimler is entering the commercial and residential stationary energy storage system (ESS) market with its wholly-owned subsidiary Deutsche ACCUmotive. The announcement comes four weeks after Tesla Motors announced its own entry into the ESS market with the home PowerWall Li-ion battery system (earlier post), although Daimler has been considering the... Read more →

Eguana Technologies, a supplier of power control and conversion solutions for distributed energy storage systems and Li-ion manufacturer LG Chem have combined their technologies under a multi-year agreement to deliver a certified, fully integrated energy storage system (ESS) Eguana calls “AC Battery”. The modular system is targeted as a residential... Read more →

In a study focused on the PJM portion of the US electricity grid, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) found that although charging electric vehicles at night (when electricity is cheap and wind power is typically more plentiful) could lower electricity costs, doing so also creates more air emissions, and... Read more →

In a pilot vehicle-to-grid project, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) is actively bidding a group of energy storage systems and electric vehicle fleets as one resource directly into the California Independent System Operator’s (CAISO) energy markets. These markets include those that address short-term imbalances in electricity supply caused by... Read more →

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, BMW announced the BMW i ChargeForward Program—a pilot study to be undertaken by the BMW Group Technology Office, together with Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E). Working with a select group of BMW i3 drivers, BMW i ChargeForward will demonstrate how intelligent... Read more →

Charging patterns with (TOU) and without (RES) whole house time-of-use rate during summer weekdays at Progress Energy, one of the participating utilities. (Peak period is in gray.) Click to enlarge. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has released a report detailing the findings from six utilities which evaluated operations and... Read more →

The California Energy Commission has issued a solicitation (PON-14-310, Driving the Integration of Electric Vehicles to Maximize Benefits to the Grid) to fund Applied Research and Development projects that will advance technologies and strategies for smart and efficient charging and vehicle-to-grid communication interfaces that will provide maximum benefits to both... Read more →

Siemens Energy Management Division has teamed with Duke Energy and Ford to demonstrate the results of an 18-month effort to reduce the cost and expand electric vehicle charging technologies. Held at the Duke Energy Envision Center in Erlanger, Ky., and utilizing a Ford Fusion Energi Plug-In Hybrid, Siemens provided the... Read more →

Nissan Motor Corporation has begun testing in Japan of a system to use electric vehicle technology to help power grids cope with peaks in demand. Nissan is using Nissan LEAF EVs paired with the LEAF to Home power supply system (earlier post) for demand response testing at several of its... Read more →

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), along with several auto manufacturers, utilities, and regional transmission organizations, will demonstrate the Open Vehicle-Grid Integration (VGI) Platform software system, developed by EPRI and Sumitomo Electric Industries. The software is an advanced software platform for integrating plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) with smart grid technologies.... Read more →

The Electric Power Research Institute, 8 automakers and 15 utilities are working to develop and to demonstrate an open platform that would integrate plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) with smart grid technologies enabling utilities to support PEV charging regardless of location. The open platform will simplify and streamline V2G (vehicle-to-grid) communications,... Read more →

Schematic of the “New Grid Testbed” components, including renewable energy generation, energy storage, smart distribution and electric transportation Click to enlarge. The University of California, Riverside is opening its Sustainable Integrated Grid Initiative to research the integration of: intermittent renewable energy, such as photovoltaic solar panels; energy storage, such as... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) issued a draft loan guarantee solicitation for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects located in the US that avoid, reduce, or sequester greenhouse gases. The Renewable Energy and Efficient Energy Projects Loan Guarantee solicitation is intended to support technologies that will have a catalytic... Read more →

Up to 30 electric vehicles at a time can recharge in Fraunhofer IAO’s parking garage. Click to enlarge. A team from Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, together with Daimler AG and the Institute for Human Factors and Technology Management at the University of Stuttgart, is developing both the charging... Read more →

Sumitomo Corporation has developed and installed the first large-scale power storage system which utilizes used batteries collected from electric vehicles. This commercial scale storage system, built on Yume-shima Island, Osaka, will begin operating in February 2014. Sumitomo Corporation created the joint venture company, 4R Energy Corporation, in collaboration with Nissan... Read more →

Summary of the path to enable EVs to provide grid services. Source: CA ISO. Click to enlarge. The California Independent System Operator Corporation (ISO) has released a blueprint for integrating electric vehicles (EVs) into the grid: “California Vehicle-Grid Integration Roadmap: Enabling Vehicle-based Grid Services”. The VGI blueprint outlines three inter-dependent... Read more →

Honda has joined a demonstration project for experimental vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology aimed at providing a potentially valuable energy storage resource to the electrical grid while providing for more cost-effective ownership of plug-in electric vehicles. The Honda technology builds off of the research conducted by the University of Delaware and now... Read more →

In a new report, Navigant Research forecasts that global vehicle-to-grid (V2G)-enabled plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) servicing the ancillary services market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 64.3% from 2013 to 2022. In North America—which Navigant sees as the strongest initial market opportunity—Navigant sees frequency regulation revenue... Read more →

iZEUS Ampera. Click to enlarge. Opel has presented a specially-equipped Ampera extended range electric vehicle to the Technical Institute Karlsruhe (KIT), marking the beginning of a field trial in the research project iZEUS (intelligent Zero Emission Urban System) in Stuttgart. The research project iZEUS is developing concepts and practical examples... Read more →

Bi-directional fast charger at Ft. Carson. Click to enlarge. A team of Burns & McDonnell engineers, along with subcontractor Coritech Services, has developed a system of bidirectional, fast-charging stations for a fleet of plug-in electric vehicles at Fort Carson, Colo. This first-of-its-kind system will push power back to the base... Read more →