Electric Vehicles Early Adopter Benefits

I read an article in the WSJ about how several utilites are offering deals to the first customers who purchase electric vehicles.  DTE for example is offering a flat rate of $40 per month to charge your vehicle.  If you drove 40 miles per day that represents about $116 less than what you would pay to use a gas powered vehicle (3.25/gal and MPG of 25)...pretty good deal.  They will also give the first 2500 customers a free home charging station to boot.

SDG&E is randomly offering three plans to new owners of the Nissan Leaf. In two of those plans they install a separate meter for the car. In the other they will offer a whole house rate that includes the car.  Their goal is the entice people to charge the car over night.  So much lower rates will be applied in the evenings. In any case it will be much cheaper to drive than using gasoline.

This will be a big step forward for electric vehicles.  I applaud the utilities for planning now rather than being caught off guard when the power grid starts choking.  It's also good that they are getting the consumer mindset prepared to plan for off peak use..an simple form of premeditated demand response!

Green Power Oregon

I came across a site called Green Power Oregon.  It is put out there by Portland General Electric.  The idea behind it is to give information to consumers about using "green" generated electricity.  One of the tings I like is that you get a picture of where and what type of green energy is being produced...pretty cool..and I'm sure most people don't even know how much investment utilities are making in this space.  It also has a green calculator that shows you how your options, should you choose to partcipate in getting part of your energy from green sources, affect the climate.  Here's the calculator:
 
http://www.greenpoweroregon.com/your-options/green-calculator.aspx

Getting back to my last post this is exactly the type of information we need to start delivering to consumers.  They will make the right choices when they have access to information.

Smart Grid Myths About Consumers

I just saw this article on Greentech Media site and smiled.  It reiterates my point that consumers need more information.  It talks about four myths on how the consumer feels towards the smart grid.  One of the things I thought was interesting is they've proven that dynamic pricing works to reduce demand in the residential consumer market..at the rate 3-10%.  But what was even more intriguing is that by adding technology to mix, i.e. information, it reduced it by 20-30%.  The reductions were higher still with the use critical peak pricing. 
The other thing that stood out was consumers are not necessarily opposed to having the utilities automatically control say their air conditioner from a far.  If it saves them money then it's OK to limit how cold your AC can get at a certain time of day.  Good stuff....Here's the article:
http://bit.ly/9ks1W5