Recently in Electric vehicles Category

Power company of the future? For Michael Morris, CEO of American Electric Power, "10 years from now we look very much like we look today." Coal still the dominant source of power, because customers in AEP territory want power that is "reliable and cost-effective. Period." The coal will be cleaner, though.

On a CEO panel at Platts Global Power Markets Conference in Las Vegas today, Morris said policymakers continue to make "fashionable undertakings" like the smart grid, he said, and AEP is "happy to do it if it's free." Basically, though, he said different states and regions will do what fits their cultures, resource bases and economies.

Whoa, said NRG Energy CEO David Crane.

Once something's made into a New Yorker cartoon, that means it's kind of real, right?

In this week's issue, Edward Koren -- of the furry-headed characters who often give us a whole new slant on things -- presents one of the etiquette challenges likely to be posed by plug-in electric vehicles.

For all the talk of innovation in the electricity sector, there's precious little of it, at least the kind that resonates with ordinary people as something concrete they could actually use without a hassle. But David Crane at NRG Energy may have something.

One of NRG's plans, Crane said at a Credit Suisse energy conference Thursday, is to sell monthly contracts, like cell phone contracts, to customers of its Reliant Energy utility, for charging electric vehicles.

Chevrolet's gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle, the Volt, attracted dozens of articles and blog posts Tuesday marveling at its stated city mileage of 230 miles per gallon. A smashing figure. Even more intriguing, though, was General Motors' statement that the sticker may also carry another measure: 25 kilowatt-hours per 100 city miles.

If that happens, the vehicle would be the first to express its fuel economy in electrical terms, and it feels like a milestone: KWh on a sticker price.

In tune with the new Washington administration, the PJM Interconnection has its hands in the electric vehicle arena. It is a member of and has been working with Magicc to develop communication protocols that will enable plug-in EVs to receive information from the power system and react to changes in electricity demand, i.e., to become a real part of the wholesale grid. Magicc is the Mid-Atlantic Grid Interactive Car Consortium.

PJM could not find a more enthusiastic champion than its very own regulator, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, whose new chairman, Jon Wellinghoff, has been a vocal advocate for the plug-in electric vehicle cause. He participated in a summit not long ago with PJM, the Electric Power Research Institute and Magicc, where he said a PEV could nearly pay for itself over 10 years by selling the power during the day that it had stored at night.

A thousand-mile transmission line, taking wind power from the plains to the city, and the wind stops blowing? We have an answer, and perhaps there can be an earmark in the stimulus for us, for our little idea.

Ack, sorry, no earmarks. We forgot.

The decision by MidAmerican Holdings, owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, to invest $230 million in a Chinese battery manufacturer as the global financial system melted down in September looked all the wiser Monday.

BYD, a Shenzhen-based battery company turned auto maker, this morning rolled out the first hybrid electric vehicle for sale in China's retail market, beating both US and Japanese car companies to the punch.