SCE is investing a total of $1.6 billion on the installation of 5 million smart meters for residential and small business customers by the end of 2012.

"After years of extensive research, we have made careful decisions to invest in technologies, systems and devices that provide a full range of customer benefits," said Theodore F. Craver Jr., chairman, president and CEO of Edison International. "We look forward to making available to all of our customers the valuable features smart meters provide, enabling them to closely monitor and manage their electricity usage to help them save energy, money, and the environment."

Replacing traditional mechanical meters, Edison's SmartConnect meters are digital, secure, two-way communicating devices that can provide a key step in "smartening" the grid. Smart meters measure a customer's electricity usage up-to-the minute and, later this year, customers will be able to view their energy usage online to track how much they use and how much it costs.

SCE believes that the information gleaned from the new meter program will reduce demand on the electricity grid by about 1,000 megawatts, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and smog-forming pollutants by a minimum of 365,000 metric tons per year.

In anticipation of a growing number of electric vehicles in southern California, SCE is also investing in electric vehicle testing and charging infrastructure research. Company officials believe that the smart grid of the future will also have to account for a growing number of electric cars and their chargers. And that the influx of electric cars presents not only a challenge in terms of balancing demand; but it also presents an opportunity to rethink how electricity is produced, stored and transmitted -- a duality they explore with their Garage of the Future project.

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Lack of business model for public charge stations stimying buildout

Electric cars like the Nissan LEAF and the Chevy Volt will start hitting showroom floors this fall and there is a considerable amount of talk--and even some concern--about where exactly we will be in terms of  building-out the charging infrastructure needed to keep those zero-emissions vehicles up and humming. With travel range on most passenger electric vehicles (EVs) somewhere near 100 miles per charge, potential buyers want to be assured they will not only be able to charge at home, but also when they're on the road.

While several factors have slowed the buildout of the charging infrastructure thus far, a new report published last week by the cleantech market research firm Pike Research, suggests there will be some serious catching up over the next five years with the addition of nearly five million new EV charge points.

The report,"Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment",  estimated that there will be 4.7 million residential, public, private and workplace charging stations installed during the period from 2010 to 2015. And in the U.S., there will likely be almost 1 million charging stations by 2015.

“The success of hybrid vehicles in the 2000s gave drivers a taste for propulsion by electric power,” says senior analyst John Gartner, “and governments around the world are now highly focused on creating the charging infrastructure to support the arrival of EVs in significant numbers.”

Pike's forecast of 4.7 million charge stations was downgraded from their 2009 figure of 5 million charge points installed between 2010 and 2015, due to a dip in projected rate of sales for EVs, and a continued lack of a clear business model for public charging stations.

“The economics of selling a few kilowatt hours per charge are very challenging," said Pike analyst Gartner. "Public charging station deployments will be driven mainly by government initiatives over the next several years.”

The report also found that the market for EV charging equipment is likely to become increasingly crowded by the end of next year as tech firms like GE, Panasonic, Samsung, and Siemens jump into the EV charger sector. The moves will put more pressure on niche players like Better Place, Coulomb, ECOtality to push ahead with their plans of developing charging networks in the U.S. and Australia and Europe.

Hat tip: cnet

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EV-charging infrastructure start-up, ECOtality, has announced its expansion into Australia.

Launches new subsidiary to expand EV-charging infrastructure in Australia

In October, we reported on ECOtality's big plan for car charging networks in the United States; today, the Arizona-based car-charging start-up has announced its expansion into Australia with its wholly-owned subsidiary, ECOtality Australia. The company, headquartered in Brisbane, Queensland, will market and distribute battery charging equipment to support electric vehicles, industrial equipment, and electric airport ground support equipment.

Company officials at ECOtality say they are well positioned to support Australia’s growing EV industry.

“As one of the first to introduce fast-charging to Australia, ECOtality will have an impact in industrial markets, as the use of our fast-charging systems reduces air pollution and provides substantial savings in annual fueling costs and operating expenses," said ECOtality CEO Jonathan Read in a statement.

Read said that ECOtality Australia also plans to play a major role in facilitating the transition to clean electric transportation by providing charging solutions to support the successful introduction of electric vehicles in the region.

ECOtality's U.S. subsidiary, eTec, pioneered its proprietary Minit-Charger line of battery fast-charge systems over the last ten years.  Originally designed to support on-road EV applications, Minit-Charger can safely charge an EV in about 15 minutes, eliminating the risk of overcharging and overheating, and enabling EV users to extend their daily driving range.

In October 2009, ECOtality received an award of nearly $100 million from the Department of Energy to pilot The EV Project, the largest deployment of EVs and charge infrastructure ever undertaken. The EV Project has a total value of more than $200 million, and will support electric vehicles with home-base, commercial and public charge stations in five states: Arizona, Washington, Oregon, California and Tennessee.

Charge station installations in those states will accompany the deployment of 4,700 Nissan LEAFs, a zero-emission EV.

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Conceptual drawing of solar-powered EV-charging station. (Johnston Marklee/ECOtality)

One of the most prominent hurdles facing the large-scale proliferation of electric cars in the United States is establishing the necessary charging infrastructure. Metropolitan areas in five states have been selected to participate in a three-year study to test electric car-charging corridors

Thanks to a $100 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to embark on the project, the EV Project will be the first combination vehicle/charge-network roll-out in North America. Headed up by eTec, a subsidiary of ECOtality, (OTCBB:ETLY), the forty-partner EV Project will deliver 4,700 electric cars and 11,210 charging systems to support those cars in eleven cities across five states: Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington.

The EV Project will join other infrastructure developers already working on building out other EV-hubs, including a Bay Area EV-charging network that will include publicly-available Coulomb Technologies Chargepoint stations in San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco.

In Washington state, roughly one thousand Nissan LEAFs—Nissan's forthcoming all-electric vehicle due in 2010—will be deployed to cities around central Puget Sound.

The regional case for electric cars in the Pacific Northwest is strong as the cheap, abundant and clean hydroelectric resource makes the area a prime candidate for transitioning to an electric transportation base.

As the batteries used in EVs become more advanced and their ranges extend, project developers in Washington hope to develop an electric corridor along I-5 between Eugene and Seattle, with an eventual extension to Vancouver, B.C.

The charging stations, the bulk of which will be in homes, will also in high population-density and high-traffic commercial areas.

Map of five-state EV Project rollout.

The idea central to the EV project is to make the rechargers for electric vehicles readily available at places such as coffee shops, post offices, grocery stores and where people work. A regular charge could take four to eight hours, while a rapid charge could take 10 to 15 minutes.

A charge could cost 50 cents to $1.50 at home, but a rapid charge would be more expensive. It is also ikely that charging could be used to incentivize consumer patronage with companies providing free car-charging at store locations to attract shoppers and help ease the 'range anxiety' held by electric car owners.

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Tesla Roadster Sport. Image courtesy of Tesla Motors, Inc.

I have to confess, I like cars a lot. I also love mass transit (in particular, the light rail in Denver and fast rail in Europe), but there is something very special about a car such as the Porsche 356 or the Tesla Roadster. As a result, I tend to follow the auto sector somewhat closely and track new design and technologies.

So, for me, I am convinced that 2009 was the year of the electric car even though the numbers of actual cars sold or projected to be sold this year do not appear to support this conclusion.

However, this really was the year where the electric vehicle (EV) and the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) became accepted in the minds of both the auto industry and consumers. This was the year for breakthrough thinking, technology and investment.

My reasoning is as follows:

1. Detroit—in recent years not noted for innovative thinking—suddenly understood that PHEVs and EVs represent the future;
2. The innovative Tesla not only became profitable but attracted mainstream investment (from Daimler);
3. Innovative business models are emerging, with Better Place taking the lead; and
4. Significant investment is being made in PHEV/EV vehicles as well as battery companies as reflected in Warren Buffet’s investment in China’s BYD.

Coulombs' pole-mounted EV charging station. Photo: Coulomb Technologies

In the United States, several key developments highlight my thesis that this is the year of the EV. The first is that the U.S. auto industry let go of some very old thinking, albeit due to the economic meltdown, and accepted that the PHEV/EV is a market opportunity. This goes well beyond the hype of the Chevy Volt.

The second is that this is the year that Tesla became profitable and received a six-percent investment from Daimler.

Third, Project Better Place, led by Shai Agassi, is rethinking the auto business model and planning the redesign of the auto infrastructure. The vision of Better Place is to provide a network of recharging stations and swappable battery stations. The business model will be to separate the ownership of the battery from the ownership of the car (similar to the separation between cell phone service and phone ownership as a close model). Essentially the concept is to charge for services (battery and electricity) per miles traveled.

This business model is gaining traction. Tesla plans to offer a swappable battery for its S model next year. Israel is building the Better Place infrastructure; Nissan is tooling up swappable batteries for its EVs; Better Place has signed deals with Hawaii, Denmark and Australia; and Tokyo’s largest taxi operator has partnered with Better Place for a new fleet of taxis in Tokyo (about 60,000 vehicles). Better Place also has a “soft” initial order for 35,000 cars in Israel with a rollout in 2011. Better Place has also demonstrated software that directs drivers to the nearest charging station and enables them to monitor the location of available batteries for their vehicles.

Finally, in addition to the United States’ move to EVs, global companies are quickly moving forward with new proposed models and new technologies. Carlos Ghosn, CEO, Renault-Nissan, is committed to producing four EVs within three years and reaching six-figure sales by the middle of the next decade. He plans to produce an EV van, family car and city car by 2011, and a five-seater by 2012. The Renault-Nissan alliance is committed to the Better Place “quickdrop” battery replacement technology in which batteries can be replaced in less than a minute.

2009 was a breakthrough year for EVs and PHEVs. While significant advances are being made in conventional gasoline-powered engines (Ford’s “Ecoboost” technology), EVs and PHEVs are gaining ground and have moved from a technical curiosity to a more mainstream alternative.

Amazing progress in just one year. Wait until next year.

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