EV.com Calls for New Department of Energy (DOE) Regulations

Ken Burridge of EV.com suggests governmental regulatory changes in the way electric utilities operate and to help create the world’s best home-based electric businesses ever!

Recently at “The Business of Plugging In” conference in Detroit, 70% of all US electric companies have pledged to pull together and modernize their infrastructure to support plug-in hybrid electric vehicle demand.  The utilities will also push for new incentives, such as tax credits and subsidized parking, to encourage consumers to make the switch to EVs.

Sadly the electric utilities have not suddenly turned green, just last year they collectively spent millions of dollars lobbying government to help ease their burden of carbon emissions, in fact some of them increased such spending several hundred percent, but that’s another story.

It is a positive green development that electric companies have started to encourage their customers to use Electric Vehicles (EVs).  In addition as in the case of FPL and Duke Energy they have recently announced a 600+ million dollar commitment to dramatically increase their use of plug-in electric hybrid (PHEV) and electric vehicles (EVs) in their fleets, with a goal that all new vehicles will be electric or hybrid by 2020.

However since electric companies currently make money based on how much electricity they sell, electric utilities still have little incentive to encourage customers to use less energy or themselves for that matter.  This is not a good situation, since 50% of electric power in the US is currently created using coal, which is inherently environmentally unfriendly, nor is it an efficient or economical use of natural resources.

What’s needed is implementation of a smart electric grid that includes dynamic pricing that reflects true generation costs instead of the current pricing model which is more or less charged at a generic averaged flat rate.  This would encourage and reward individuals and businesses to switch to off-peak usage when electric companies are utilizing their most economical facilities and could offer cheaper rates.

Along with lower off-peak rates what needs to be encouraged is for individuals and businesses to produce and store their own electricity.  This would allow the recharging of electric cars and busses to be accomplished essentially off the grid even during on-peak periods.

Having a fully functional smart grid can force electric companies to operate more like banks, or electricity brokers, whereby electricity becomes a new form of currency.

The best home-based business ever might be to own your own electricity farm in your garage (read owning a bunch of batteries) that stores energy during off-peak hours, while you are sleeping and then one could sell the energy back to the electric company during the on-peak hours. Ken Burridge (known to coin a phrase or two) likes calling these home-grown battery farms “Electric Victory Gardens”, reminiscent of the Victory Gardens or War Gardens, that were vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany during the first and second World Wars to reduce the pressure on the public food supply that was caused by the war effort.

Theses Electric Victory Gardens in addition to indirectly aiding in the worldwide effort to combat global warming by helping the electric utilities reduce carbon emissions these gardens would also act as a civil “morale booster”, that would empower individuals so that they could feel that they were contributing to helping mitigate climate change and helping to produce cheaper electricity at the same time.

Taking the Electric Victory Garden idea one step further might be for a business or homeowner to invest in solar panels or wind turbines that generate electricity, and if the amount of electricity generated happens to be more than the owner can use or store, that extra energy can be feed to the electric grid, which the utility company would then credit or pay at the current rate.