[ausev] Meeting about Austin Energy future plans - June 23 at 4 pm

Mon Jun 15 15:34:05 GMT 2009

EV'ers,

See this 'press release below'. There is a meeting next week, June 23, 
that some of you may find useful to attend. Given the discussion about 
whether or not AE is thinking about PHEV/EVs, they are to a substantial 
degree.

Austin Energy is undergoing a systematic evaluation of how to be the 
"utility of the future" if you will. This is called the Pecan Street 
Project. It includes concepts such as how to arrange the AE business 
model in the medium-long term to accommodate things like a substantial 
amount of PHEV/EV. I have personally been involved in many of the 
meetings and discussions via working at UT and UT being one of the 
partners of this planning/project.

So far it has been only meetings and sweat equity provided by all 
involved, including the partnering companies. You'll notice a decent 
number of IT/tech companies wanting to get involved since they want to 
sell services and gadgets associated with the future smart grid, which 
includes how to deal with EVs that will charge/discharge from/to the grid.

Carey King

****************
Austin – June 5, 2009) – Austin citizens are invited to learn about and 
provide input to the Pecan Street Project during a public meeting on 
June 23 from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Capital Area Workforce Board, 
6505 Airport Blvd., Suite 101-E.

Public meeting attendees will be provided a project overview, followed 
by an invitation to participate in breakout sessions encouraging 
discussion and soliciting feedback about the project’s technology, 
system design, financial and economic development aspects.

The Pecan Street Project is an initiative charged with exploring the 
challenges Austin faces in building a modern energy system, including a 
“smart grid.” On September 25, 2008, the Austin City Council adopted a 
resolution directing the city to work with Environmental Defense Fund 
and other community stakeholders to provide a roadmap to the energy 
system of the future, which would include a sustainable business model 
relying on locally produced, user-generated, clean energy.

Led by EDF, Austin Energy, the University of Texas, The Greater Austin 
Chamber of Commerce, and the City of Austin, the collaborative project 
has already garnered 11 corporate partnerships, including: Applied 
Materials, Cisco Systems, Dell, Freescale, GE, GridPoint, IBM, Intel, 
Microsoft, Oracle and Sematech.

For more information, visit the website: www.pecanstreetproject.org 
<http://www.pecanstreetproject.org/>

Lionel Hinojosa wrote:
> Hi Guys,
> Sorry I didn't make it either but we had a display at ROT Rally this 
> weekend. One thing we all noticed is the lack of knowledge of electric 
> vehicles among the general public. These are not your typical 
> "bikers". They are nurses, doctors, business owners, managers, police 
> officers, city officials, factory supervisors. It is almost like they 
> have not been watching the news at all. Most people do not deal with 
> anything until they HAVE to. This is why AE and the City do not see 
> the need yet. It is just like last year high gas prices and they start 
> looking around. Low prices and they other thing to deal with right 
> now. Well gas is over $3.00 a gallon in California as of Friday.
> A grassroots education program is something we need to do. Maybe 
> Public Television show, a newsletter. We may be able to get some 
> funding for this from like minded groups and individuals maybe the 
> Chamber.
> Let me know what you think.
>
> Leo Hinojosa
> GM - Austin
> *EV AUTOS TEXAS*
> 832.754.6194 c
> 512.919.4907 f
> www.evautostexas.com <http://www.evautostexas.com/>
>
>
> --- On *Mon, 6/15/09, Gary Ellis /<austinev at rcnmotors.com>/* wrote:
>
>
>     From: Gary Ellis <austinev at rcnmotors.com>
>     Subject: Re: [ausev] Meeting this Saturday
>     To: "AustinEV News Announcements and General Discussion"
>     <ausev at austinev.org>
>     Date: Monday, June 15, 2009, 8:05 AM
>
>     Sorry I was unable to attend the meeting this past weekend. I
>     would be interested to hear what was discussed about charging
>     infrastructure in Austin.
>
>     Public charging:
>     I know that Austin Energy is not in favor of this, as they would
>     rather see EVs charge at night at off-peak hours. But I do know
>     that they have plans (distant plans?) of putting in a few
>     alternative fuel stations. Any news on this? They are not opposed
>     to (but also are not interested in supporting) a grass-roots
>     program of getting grocery stores, coffee shops, parking garages,
>     etc. to allow EVs to use their existing outdoor outlets. I'm still
>     in favor of this and would be happy to discuss this further.
>
>     Service Upgrades:
>     30A 220V options for faster charging will serve well for quite
>     sometime, since it has the potential to charge relatively large
>     capacities (50kWh) in a reasonabe time. But as battery technology
>     improves and customer demands push the range of EVs, Austin Energy
>     will be faced with the issue of increasing the current capacity to
>     a large number of households. Simply upgrading the house service
>     (as in Barry's case, for his 70A Tesla charger) will work for a
>     while, until too many people in the neighborhood have high current
>     services. I don't know if this is a plan item for them yet.
>
>     Using EVs as Energy Storage:
>     From what I've heard, it sounds like AE isn't considering this
>     seriously anymore.
>
>     Lead-Acid Graveyard:
>     As we cycle through our battery packs to the point that they no
>     longer have the capacity sufficient for an EV, the batteries still
>     have a fair amount of life in them for less demanding
>     applications. Since a home AC compressor is typically about 40A or
>     less, one interesting idea is to use a set of old batteries as a
>     dedicated power source just for your home AC. Recharge these
>     batteries at night, so they will run your AC during the day, and
>     they would help level the grid loading. Any AE customer could have
>     such a system installed, whether or not they own an EV, and would
>     be a consumer of old EV packs. If AE ever gives off-peak power
>     discounts, then this would be economically advantageous to the
>     customer. Otherwise, it would just be in the interest of AE to
>     support these systems to help reduce the daytime grid loading, as
>     with the solar program.
>
>     Li-ion Breakeven Point:
>     As prices for Li-ion drops and their reliability increases, we're
>     getting to the point where the upfront cost of a Li-ion pack and
>     long life is about the same as replacing several sets of lead-acid
>     batteries. We probably have enough collective experience in our
>     group to do a good comparison on this.
>
>     Well those are off the top of my head. I'd like to hear others
>     thoughts and discuss ideas further.
>     Thanks,
>
>     Gary
>     ReinCarNation
>     www.rcnmotors.com <http://www.rcnmotors.com/>
>
>
>     On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 1:17 PM, Chris Robison
>     <chris at chrisrobison.org
>     <http://us.mc637.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=chris@chrisrobison.org>>
>     wrote:
>
>         Hey folks, about that time again...
>
>
>         The June meeting for AustinEV is this Saturday:
>
>         When: Saturday June 13, 2pm
>         Where: Austin Public Library, Terrazas Branch
>         1105 E Cesar Chavez St
>         Austin, TX 78702
>         Map: http://is.gd/jdTP
>
>         We'd like to have a discussion on charging infrastructure in
>         Austin,
>         what's currently being done and what we'd like to see happen.
>         If you
>         have any thoughts on the subject, please share your ideas and
>         information with the group!
>
>
>
>         --chris
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
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