PNNL researchers develop standard smart charger for plug-in vehicles
By Donald Melanson 
posted May 4th 2009 4:22PM
posted May 4th 2009 4:22PM
Developing a charger for a plug-in electric vehicle is hardly anything new, but the folks at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (or PNNL, for those in the know) have some considerably grander plans for their new Smart Charger Controller, which they say could one day serve as a standard charger for all sorts of electric vehicles. The key bit, it seems, is that each controller would be wirelessly linked to the local electric utility, which would feed the controller power prices and other information in order to let it charge during non-peak hours -- saving owners about $150 a year in energy costs as a result. It would apparently even be able to sense "stress conditions" and shut down before the grid gets overloaded. Of course, all of this depends on both the automakers and electric utilities getting on board, which could be quite a tall order, especially with another standardized EV plug seemingly already on the fast track.
That's one hip looking posse. :) congrats to them. !TSRIF
That guy on the left needs to turn down the sex appeal a few notches with that racy pose.
Pretty cool, big payday for whoever s standard is adopted by the majority of electric car manufacturers
love the boy band poses.
Yes, they grew up and became engineers:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a313/guardguywcu/nsync.jpg
an improved kill-a-watt for the car. i like it.
now can we have that set up to just drive onto in my garage and not actually PLUG it in?
This looks like a G-Unit video.
HAHA I was thinking the same thing!
Why are you doing a rap album cover pose?
That's just how they roll, yo.
do we need more than a timer to know non-peak hour? if it takes many hours to charge, will u get full charge in non-peak time?
You need to know when the grid may be suffering certain conditions. A simple timer won't provide DSM (demand side management) abilities.
In future , energy prices could depend on how much green energy is currently available, eg. if there is a lot of wind energy, your electricity meter will give a "go" to your tumble dryer and also to your car-charger.
ABB is developing so called "intelligent electricity meters" for a while now.
Another potential for this technology is the ability for the power company to set a different rate for the car charger.
Why? Well, most electric utilities allow bulk sales of so-called "interruptable" power at lower rates. It's power the utility normally wouldn't be able to sell, because it's the first load to be turned off if generation drops for some reason. Because this load has the lowest service priority (and the customer is aware of that), it gets sold at the lowest rate.
This means that the household current might be given a different reliability than the car charger might.
What does a standard EV Plug have to do with a Standard EV Charger? We need both. Just a plug on the part of the author to breed some controversy and get some comments? It worked.
Exactly.. standardized plug != intelligent charging unit... Obviously this new device could use the standardized plug. Is this author a moron or what?
If plug-in cars really become popular and so does this smart charger, will all the smart chargers kick on at the same time and cause brown/black-outs?
That's the whole point of a smart charger- it gets information from the grid and won't charge the car if the grid is becoming overloaded
nice. There is a secondary benefit to this. As electric cars increase in popularity, the electricity grid won't be able to keep up with the demand. The providers will be forced to upgrade their grid. However, this tech can alleviate some of the 'stress' to the network or at least buy the providers some time, having a more gradual and manageable upgrade process.
Come on Donald, this is a charger, not a plug standard. I'm going to have to weigh in that a timer is sufficient. Nighttime demand is so low right now. When is a precisely timed and coordinated car charging network going to be required? 20 years from now?
Oh, by the way, the power companies already can do this for HVAC. Why reinvent the WHEELS.
OR, maybe put two lines of code in the car's software to time its charging. Why do you need more hardware?
KISS
I used to work out at PNNL. Damn. That is my hometown son.
Yeah, now I can't wait to see the dealership's $600 "smartcharge adapter" add-on fee.
"wirelessly linked to the local electric utility, which would feed the controller power prices and other information". The "other information" bit is a worry. This would also be a perfect opportunity to tell the "grid" that you are charing a car and therefore, most likely pay "special" taxes on it. They have to recoup the lost taxes from the reduction in petroleum sales right?
tut, governments eh!
"The key bit, it seems, is that each controller would be wirelessly linked to the local electric utility, which would feed the controller power prices and other information in order to let it charge during non-peak hours"
i can see the power companies sending out wrong data to these and the people getting screwed in the long run -- most people would look at the device and forget what it said by the end of the period when they get the bill it would be a different rate!!!!
im sure that if this device were to link up to the power company the power company would know who it was or want it was by info from your bill or account -- they can screw you!!!
or the IT guy
So basically we have to ask for permission from the power utility to recharge our EV? Sure would suck if you are on 2nd/3rd shift, or for one of the last guys to get home at night and end up at the bottom of the charging queue.
I'm also skeptical of the "$150/yr savings" as in my state, peak/off-peak pricing is currently only available to commercial customers, so it makes little difference in my power bill when I use electricity.
And the wireless part is just laughable from a security standpoint.
Sounds more like a good PR gimmick rather than sound engineering.
No, you don't have to ask permission. A user interface for this kind of device might be that you plug your car in, and tell it when you need the car charged by and what percentage charge you need. The system then decides how to use the cheapest electricity possible and still meet your requirements.
(For example, you might require a 60% charge status. If electricity is really cheap for enough of the evening, the system will charge it to 100% for you. If it's really expensive, it'll still charge it enough that you still get the 60% charge you need, you'll just pay more.)
This particular device does not appear to be that smart, but I don't see any reason why similar ones shouldn't be.
As for your 'scepticism' about the potential savings, it doesn't matter what the electricity pricing model is right now. Smart metering, if it ever becomes a success, will obviously only be rolled out alongside some kind of variable pricing. Because it will be a large benefit to power companies, I should think there will definitely be a significant price advantage compared to fixed pricing. (Most likely by the fixed pricing getting more expensive, of course.)
Smart metering could be an important part of:
(a) a power system with a high proportion of renewable energy. Because it essentially provides the equivalent of a huge built-in storage capacity if every electric car can temporarily halt charging when there's a lull in wind and it's night so you have no/less solar, etc.
(b) electric car takeup. Even though electric cars are much more energy-efficient than the petrol-powered sort, they use a humungous amount of energy compared to ordinary household appliances. If everybody used electric cars the electricity grid would fall over, and upgrading the whole grid may be rather expensive. Some kind of system to balance out the load should help that.
Finally about security - what kind of security do you think the utility company actually needs if it's sending out information about power prices and grid status? That doesn't seem like any kind of state secret....
Those guys can't really be from the Pacific Northwest if they are wearing jackets while the sun is shining. They should be in tshirts and shorts, wearing sandals.
They're definitely from the PNW (Eastern WA, not Western). I should know... I work in the same building as two of those guys. :P
Great, just what we need.. more corporate control over when and how our cars charge up. Anyone remember the Whirlpool clothes dryers that were being experimented with that would shut off the heating element during peak power usage times? You'd think your clothes were drying but they were just spinning around with no heat.
You're heading out to a movie with a friend and.. aw crap.. the power company shut off the charger and the car won't go anywhere.
Engadget: Are you sure this would compete with the other EV plug standard? This is a charging controller whereas the other is simply the plug. Am I missing something?
I'm the guy on the left... I really wish they'd used one of the 50 or so other pics they took for this...
Actually, Sam, what's shown in the pic is only half of what we're working on. That device sits on the vehicle itself, and should be tied in to the vehicles command screens. We definitely have it set up for the vehicle owner to specify a time they want the vehicle charged by. In fact, it takes all the things you've mentioned into consideration. In addition, it can help utilities maintain the health of the grid (of course, that's mentioned in the article on AutoBlogGreen).
Uhh, I don't see how this would be a problem to implement.
These guys created the power grid to plug interface.
The auto industry standardized on a plug.
Seems like those could go hand in hand...
meh, hybrids are over-rated.
my car is a 1992 peugeot 405 GRDturbo, and it gets 4.8L/100km on a trip. thats better than what the prius will do. I will try to better that economy next time i go on a long distance drive.
thanks for reminding us you're rolling around in a deathbed.
At least its not an electric chair, ready to be activated when you crash
Haev you ever thought of how much more mileage you could get if you put your small turbo diesel in a series configuration as a series hybrid? A small diesel hybrid would get incredible mileage.
Done right, if you only do short commutes each day, you could possibly never have to fire up the motor.
4.8L in a 100km trip is equal to 1.268 gallons for every 62 miles (or 48.89 mpg). Good to be sure, but smoked by 2000 Honda Insight hybrid with 65 combined mpg, and trumped by the 2010 Prius with a combined 50 mpg.
From what I can find, your turbo diesel has 92 horsepower & 145 lb ft of torque. That's anemic compared to the new Prius with 134 hp & 153 lb ft of torque combined. On top of that, gasoline prices in the US compared to diesel is about 20% less, and it looks like turbo diesels are at a strong disadvantage.
Also, similar outfits!