It seems that utility companies may not be ready for the increased power demands from electric vehicles, according to a new report from Pike Research.
The report suggests that utilities will need a host of new infrastructure requirements to support the increased power demand but many may currently be unprepared because of a lack of standards for sharing information between utilities and external systems.
Pike is anticipating that the worldwide investment in electric vehicle IT systems will reach $1.5billion annually by 2015 and a cumulative total of $5.1billion will be spent between 2010 and 2015. However, it suggests those levels of investment are far lower than other smart grid infrastructure and may be insufficient to prepare for the arrival of electric vehicles.
It is expected that electric vehicles will initially be bought in clusters around neighbourhoods that have a historically high adoption of hybrid vehicles. However, if multiple electric vehicles are plugged in simultaneously at the level two charge rate into a single transformer then the power drawn could exceed capacity and lead to equipment failures.
So with thousands of electric vehicles plugged in daily, peak demand at the conclusion of the work day could be increased if intelligence is not built into the charging process.
Currently, automotive, home networking, smart grid and utility industries are collaborating with institutions such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology regarding standards to establish first-time interoperability with grid equipment. However, many of these standards will not be completed until 2012 or later.
