GM Pushes To Control Electric Utility Rates
Here we’ve just finished posting about how much it will cost to drive the Volt. Some interesting comments have come back. I’m working on getting some more battery specifics and will report back to you very soon.
In the meantime, GM is part of a large coalition of heavy electric users in the state of Ohio. The group includes Honda, Ford, Whirlpool, and G.E. They have formed this alliance to prevent the state from deregulating it’s electric rates. They fear deregulation to an open market system could cause rates to escalate. Of course, the motivation here is for GM to keep it’s costs down. But when you begin looking at an electric car revolution in the form of the Volt, electric utility rates become a big deal indeed for affecting sales and widespread adoption.
Maybe GM should start flexing their muscle on a more national level?
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7 Responses to “GM Pushes To Control Electric Utility Rates”
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August 16th, 2007 at 3:04 am
OK, just an insight on what happens in Belgium. The electricity distribution has been deregulated (liberalized as you please) since 2005 in Flanders and beginning 2007 in the south (Walloonia). GM could be right in anticipating that deregulation may imply higher prices, until now it is what happenned (depending of the region in which you live and the region you live in, on average, a +/-5% price increase has been observed) with very complex contract proposals from the different electricity producers (similar to what happened with the mobile phone companies) and inegal treatment of the citizens. We hope :
1° that some companies will merge in Western Europe to benefit in order to benefit of return s to scale and 2) that the EU creates a central regulating autority so that all the european consumers will be treated the same.
August 16th, 2007 at 9:21 am
Regulation of utilities only makes sense if there is but one electrical provider. In other words, it’s an attempt to prevent a monopoly from doing what monopolies usually do. The downside is that regulation tends to support higher rates because of the politics that get involved with utilities and politicians (who set the rates) and unions. Unions dump a LOT of money into political elections, far more than businesses do, and also time and effort getting voters to the polls. In the event that more than one provider does exist, then competition will guarantee that the rates will not be padded by nepotism,
payoffs to unions, etc. When our area’s electrical service was deregulated, our condo chose a new provider and saved an awful lot of money on our building’s major expense - electricity. Anyone who opposes deregulation when there is more than one player (which should always be a prerequisite for deregulation) doesn’t really understand how free markets work.
I’d call GM’s actions bizarre, assuming that deregulation would not result in a monopoly. Nothing is as efficient as competition, in everything, football, business, etc.
August 16th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Not a direct response to Electric Utility companies but related subject relative to source of electricity for EV.
My question is the following and maybe want to provide a write up to see if other people have answer.
I am looking forward to the Volt and other cars like it. When that occurs I am hoping the Solar cells pricing will be lower than today and would like to install some solar cells at home to help recharge vehicle batteries. The issue is that Solar cells would be collecting electricity in daytime and then need to recharge vehicle at night. Do most todays Solar Cell include batteries to store the electricity for use later? If not, it is another area that low cost batteries will be important in the full picture of electric vehicles and charging from Solar. As you can tell my knowledge on Solar cells is limited and would be interested in more information and how it could work with EV charging.
August 16th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Many home solar systems are grid connected. This eliminates the need for batteries or a generator for night time and cloudy conditions.
The grid can draw excess power from the home solar system. My utility company uses net metering. The idea is to have enough capacity to run the meter backwards during the day, while powering the house refrigerator, lights, air conditioning and such.
Hopefully the home solar system will bank enough power with the utility to make up for the power that is drawn from the grid at night. In fact the goal is to bank enough power during the summer months to make it through December and January.
Eventually LiIon batteries or similar might be a better choice to reduce cost, but for now net metering or selling power to the utility is the way to go.
August 16th, 2007 at 10:15 am
Steve F
Solar panels have to be hooked up to battery banks in (say your garage) in order to store the electricity off grid. If you fill up those batteries with sun generated electricity, then you can discharge them into your Volt at night. Those storage batteries are usually old lead-acid car batteries but newer lithium-ion ones are expected.
August 16th, 2007 at 10:54 am
Check out the forums, I posted an article a few weeks ago about Altair Nanotechnologies working with a power company to develop a home storage battery unit.
Combine that with a cost effective and efficient solar panel array, and you could generate and store your own power.
August 16th, 2007 at 11:07 am
They’ll never use lithium-ion batteries for home or even grid power storage. The benefits of lithium-ion batteries are that they are small, powerful, lightweight, and have a high energy density. They are also expensive. For immobile power storage cost and reliability are the key factors. And while lithium-ion batteries are reliable, they are not cheap. There is new battery technology that is cheap and reliable, but it’s not lithium-ion. And if you are looking at getting home solar power, then you should understand that batteries are optional, elsewise the grid is your battery and you just use net metering as mentioned above. Also, having batteries for home solar power system leaves you with two benefits. One: you are mostly immune power outages, and two: you use your own electricity. V2G technology serves as solution one with an EV, but you can still get solution two from home power storage.