Philip D. Brown

Richmond County Daily Journal

A local electric utility will have the opportunity to assess the way the demands on the electric grid will change as plug-in electric vehicles following a federal grant announcement Wednesday.

President Barack Obama announced $2.4 billion in grants to accelerate the domestic manufacturing and deployment of electric vehicles, batteries and components from Elkhart, Indiana.

About $30 million of this money will go to each Ford and General Motors to deploy and evaluate the vehicles, and they have agreed to partner with Progress Energy for testing.

The company will receive several makes and models from each company, a spokesman explained.

Progress CEO Bill Johnson offered his thoughts at a press conference in Florida with officials from the Environmental Protection Agency.

“At Progress Energy, we see great opportunity and benefits with plug-in vehicles,” Johnson said. “Reduced greenhouse gas emissions and cleaner air overall, lower and more stable fuel costs and less dependence on foreign oil. So, it’s a triple win for consumers, our country and the planet as a whole — truly good news in tough economic times.”

“These vehicles will be used to expand our existing relationships with these companies to test and demonstrate electric vehicles on our system,” said Scott Sutton, a Progress Energy environmental communications specialist. “We need to understand the potential impact of electric vehicles on the grid when these vehicles become available next year.”

The energy company already has one of the largest test fleets in the nation, Sutton said, which includes plug-in Toyota Prius’s, Ford Escapes and the first plug-in bucket truck.

It has not yet been determined which vehicles Progress will receive, or how many, he explained.

“We will receive a certain number of vehicles from Ford and from GM and we will use these for testing in our service territory in the Carolinas, and also in our service territory in Florida, and provide data back to Ford and GM,” Sutton said. “But also, we will gather our own data from real world driving situations on charging patterns and the impact to the electric grid.

“We’re obviously interested in knowing when people will charge their vehicle, where they will charge their vehicle and what impact it will have on our grid.”

The hope is, however, that a broad range of vehicles will be available for testing.

“We hope to be able to test SUV’s, vans and sedans to determine what impact they will have,” Sutton said.

In his remarks, Johnson said he foresees a day when fueling at the plug will be as common as fueling at the pump.

“It’s already cheaper and cleaner, and it leverages domestic energy,” he said. “Advanced vehicle technology is one part of a balanced portfolio approach to securing our energy future while fighting global climate change.”

Johnson also touched on the concepts of finding a balanced solution on energy issues and on the smart grid.

He defined the smart grid as utility infrastructure which incorporates energy-efficiency, alternative and renewable energy sources and state-of-the-art plants.

“In the future, plug-in vehicles could become part of an integrated smart home and smart grid system,” Johnson said. “There’s long-term potential for these vehicles to store energy during off-peak times, which could be used to help meet peak demand.”

He called the announcement “another step in preparing for a new energy future - a long-term transformation of how we produce and use energy in this country.”

Obama said the $2.4 billion in funding is provided through the stimulus bill, and will fund 48 new advanced battery and electric drive projects.

“If we want to reduce our dependence on oil, put Americans back to work and reassert our manufacturing sector as one of the greatest in the world, we must produce the advanced, efficient vehicles of the future,” Obama said in a press release.

The $2.4 billion in funding represents the largest investment in advanced battery technology for hybrid and electric-drive vehicles ever made, the White House release says, and will create tens of thousands of jobs in the U.S. battery and auto industries.

Of the money, $1.5 billion will go to U.S.-based manufacturers to produce batteries and their components, and to expand battery recycling capacity.

Another $500 million will be designated for grants to U.S.-based manufacturers to produce electric drive components for vehicles, including electric motors, power electronics and other drive train components.

Also, $400 million will be used to purchase thousands of plug-in, hybrid and all-electric vehicles for test demonstrations in several dozen locations, including North Carolina, to deploy and evaluate them, to install electric charging infrastructure and to provide education and workforce training to support the transition to advanced electric transportation systems.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu visited Celgard in Charlotte.

The company received $49 million in grant funding to expand separator production capacity to serve the expected increased demand for lithium-ion batteries from manufacturing facilities across the nation.

Celgard will be expanding its manufacturing capacity in Charlotte and Aiken, S.C. with new production expected to come online in 2010.

Company spokespeople said the grants could help create “approximately hundreds of jobs,” in the White House release.

In a released statement, U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell said he was pleased with the award of the funding.

“This funding will help Celgard create more manufacturing jobs and expand their current production,” he said.

“Celgard is at the forefront of advanced battery technology,” U.S. Senator Kay Hagan said. “This Recovery Act grant will give the company the resources to dramatically increase production of this critical battery component, creating high-tech manufacturing jobs in our state. This funding is an investment in batteries that will power electric cars and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil.”

The Waxman-Markey Energy/Cap and Trade Bill which passed earlier this year set forward an aggressive agenda to cut emissions three percent by 2012, 17 percent by 2020, 42 percent by 2030 and more than 80 percent by 2050.