Boost U.S. Grid by Electric Cars’ Batteries
Nearly $5 million in federal money will be given to Detroit Edison Co. and five partners to show how advanced batteries similar to those in electric vehicles can store energy for later use in the nation's electrical grid.
Hawk Asgeirsson, the manager of power system technologies at DTE said "We want to show that you can charge the batteries at noon, and shift the energy coming out of the battery to later use for consumers."
DTE will lead the project; Michigan partners are A123 of Ann Arbor, Chrysler Group LLC of Auburn Hills and NextEnergy of Detroit.
Other partners are Kema of Massachusetts and National Grid, an international electricity and gas company in Great Britain and the northeastern United States.
With the partners contributing money beyond the federal funds,the DTE-led project will totally have $10.9 million.
"$620 million will be distributed to 32 demonstration projects nationwide to build a higher-tech, resilient electrical grid."Energy Secretary Steven Chu said.
"Including large-scale energy storage, smart meters, distribution and transmission system monitoring devices, and a range of other smart technologies,the projects will act as models for deploying integrated Smart Grid systems on a broader scale," the department said in a statement.
These demonstration projects will further understanding of what works best and delivers the best results for the Smart Grid,what is more, setting the course for a modern grid is critical to achieving energy goals.
The DOE funding is divided into two groups: One focused on streamlined communication technologies,which lets parts of the grid to "talk" to each other in real time and avoid disruptions and outages.Depending on such renewables as solar and wind,the DTE-led project will do more reserch on utility-scale energy storage that reduce the need for new electricity plants.