Public Power - November/December 2007 - (Page 40)

Plug-In Partners Get Plugged In 7 percent to 8 percent of grid-supplied electricity in 2050. • PHEVs can improve nationwide air quality and reduce petroleum consumption by three million to four million barrels per day in 2050. Austin Energy is exploring “V2G”—vehicle to grid—possibilities, Librach said. The car battery would fully charge each night, but during the daytime the electricity grid might take back power from the car battery to help meet peak demand or to avoid brownouts. This might be achieved, for example, if a parked PHEV were used to power a refrigerator. “We’re studying mechanisms where we can take energy stored in the battery and send it back to the grid,” he said. “We’ve pretty much achieved our original goal,” said Librach of the Plug-In Partners program. “It was sort of a numbers game. We wanted to get a geographical cross-section of the United States to join as partners and we have achieved that. In addition, we’ve got over 11,000 soft purchase orders, which is an agreement to buy a plug-in hybrid in the future when they become available at a reasonable price. Google recently made a big splash in this area by setting aside $10 million for research into plug in vehicles.“ Plug-In Partners is still seeking partners, said Librach. “We’re also changing the campaign a little bit, and we’re thinking more about how to help get these vehicles into car showrooms as soon as possible. The research on V2G will help, as will our work on legislation to provide rebates, and our efforts working with the electric utility industry on various aspects of this. “We’re finding that there is an improvement in gas mileage—say in case of the Prius, from maybe 35 to 50 mpg to 75 or possibly 100 mpg with the plug-in. And if you go with a flex-fuel-type vehicle, you can double that gas mileage. The emissions are better because you’re using less gasoline and shifting those emissions from thousands of individual tailpipes to better controlled power plant stacks. And you’re helping to get us off of Middle Eastern oil.” ❚ Courtney Barry is a writer in Austin, Texas. Maintain Repair or Replace? The people at Osmose help you to optimize the lifecycles of T&D assets by connecting you with the data describing their location, condition and potential for continued use. Improved Pole Inspection and Utilization with StrengthCalc™, LoadCalc™ and FastGate® Viewer Pole Restoration with the C2-Truss™ to reduce replacement costs Accurate Network Data through Osmose FastGate® Field Surveys Asset Data Queries and Reporting with FastGate Manager for Poles and Joint Use Eliminate out-of-date paper records with the Osmose Mapping Center SM The Power to Make Intelligent Choices SM (716) 319-3423 • www.OsmoseUtilities.com © 2007 Osmose® 40 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2007 PUBLIC POWER

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - November/December 2007

Public Power - November/December 2007 Contents Washington Focus 10 Questions Connecting with the Customer Through Automation AMR or AMI? The High Court’s Antitrust Thunderbolts California’s Push for Demand-Response Plug-In Partners Get Plugged In Wiring Up for Double-Digit Growth For Engineers Safety Community Broadband For Governing Boards DEED Customer Service Hometown Connections Index to Advertisers Parting shot

Public Power - November/December 2007

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