 |
Home | | |
Renewable Sources | | |
Clean Energy | | |
Campaign | | |
News | | |
FAQ | | |
Make a Difference | | |
Energy Tips |
 |
Clean | Energy Technology |
Electric Vehicles
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
> The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission has approved lower EV charging rates for Hawaiian Electric residential customers on Oahu, Maui county and Hawaii Island during a three year pilot.
> Under a proposal before the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, Hawaiian Electric residential customers on Oahu, Maui county and Hawaii Island could incur lower rates for electric vehicle charging at their homes during off-peak hours.
> A South Korea-based company has committed to build a $200 million assembly plant on O'ahu that would turn out two-seat electric cars and other vehicles and employ as many as 400 people.
> The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism is offering grants to Hawaii businesses, nonprofit organizations and state and county government entities to support the installation of commercially available and standard-compliant electric vehicle charging equipment and to accelerate the adoption of full-speed electric drive vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in Hawaii.
Benefits of electric vehicles
Hawaiian Electric companies’ present EV activities
The commitment
Why move to electric vehicles?
History
Links
Benefits of electric vehicles
Nationwide, a combination of automakers, electric utilities, and environmentalists agree on the many benefits from switching a substantial part of the U.S. automobile fleet from internal combustion engines running on gasoline to electric vehicles.
Even if the electricity comes primarily from oil, as it does in Hawaii at present, switching to electric vehicles will use substantially less oil at lower cost to reach the same level of mobility. Using electricity in millions of vehicles would substantially reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the transportation sector with only a modest increase in the emissions of the electrical sector. If renewable energy is used instead of fossil fuels, the benefits will be even greater.
Here are just a few benefits that may be realized nationally through the deployment of plug-in hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles:
- Cut net foreign petroleum imports (now as high as 12.3 million barrels per day) in half nationally
- Meet the travel needs of a majority of Americans (half of U.S. cars are driven less than 30 miles/day, even larger percentage in Hawaii)
- Charging electric vehicles during times of off-peak electricity use, the U.S. grid could supply 73% of the energy needed for light vehicles with no added generation capacity
- Cut carbon dioxide emissions by 27%
- Give drivers a “gas optional” choice
- Save consumers money – a plug-in fueled by $1 of electricity can go up to three times farther than a vehicle fueled by $1 of gasoline
- Provide a way to use renewable energy to power transportation
- Provide incentives to utilities to speed up advanced metering, smart grids, and time-of-use rates
Also, electric vehicles and batteries can be used one day as a distributed resource of stored energy that could be tapped to provide energy to the grid during energy source shortfalls.
Hawaiian Electric and its subsidiaries Maui Electric Company and Hawaii Electric Light Company on Hawaii Island are committed to the goal of electrifying transportation. If Hawaii is going to move away from near total dependence on imported fossil fuels – mostly oil – for our energy needs, we must reduce the use of oil for transportation as well as for electricity.
To learn more about EVs click here.
Back to TopHawaiian Electric companies’ present EV activities
In December 2008, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Better Place and Hawaiian Electric Company was signed. Better Place brings a new concept to the electric car idea. Better Place’s plans call for an infrastructure of electric charging stations in homes, businesses, and public parking areas and battery-swapping stations where drivers can change batteries as quickly and effortlessly as one would drive a vehicle to a service station for a fill-up. The MOU aims to bring an EV charging and operating system to Hawaii in the future. Hawaiian Electric continues to work with Better Place on a variety of projects to bring EVs to Hawaii.
Also in December 2008, Governor Linda Lingle announced an MOU between Phoenix Motorcars of California and Maui Electric Company was signed to explore the use of all-electric pickup trucks and SUVs in the Maui Electric Company fleet. Maui Electric Company plans to add new PHEV sedans to its fleet each year, beginning in 2010. Partnering with a local architectural firm, Maui Electric Company has added a wind turbine to its offices that powers two EV chargers from Coulomb Technologies.
Hawaiian Electric and Maui Electric companies each has a Toyota Prius that has been converted to a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). They are part of the companies’ efforts to learn as much as possible about PHEVs and electric vehicles.
The conversions are a joint research effort among the companies and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE); Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism; University of Hawaii; U.S. Air Force, County of Maui; and the Hawaii Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies (HCATT).
The Prius modification at HCATT, in January 2009, involved installing a retrofit battery/charging package by mechanics from Pat’s Garage in San Francisco. The converted Prius vehicles can be plugged into a standard 120 volt wall outlet to charge the battery. The battery package also has increased energy storage to effectively improve the fuel economy of the Prius.
As part of the project, INL also had Pat’s Garage install on-board data logging equipment to record fuel efficiency, electricity usage, engine function, and GPS data. The demand load profile of the charging station will be recorded through integration with Hawaiian Electric Company’s future Advanced Metering Infrastructure. The addition of a wireless Load Control Relay (LCR) at the charge station will enable Hawaiian Electric Company to further understand Demand Response opportunities of EV technology and will allow remote interruption of charging activities during designated periods. The LCR is the same device used in Hawaiian Electric Company’s EnergyScout™ residential and business load control programs, which allow the utility to briefly turn off a customer’s solar water heater or other designated equipment in return for substantial credits on the customers’ electric bills each month, whether the system is used or not.
Back to Top
The commitment
Hawaiian Electric along with many other investor-owned utilities that are members of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI*) have made an industry-wide pledge to plug-in electric vehicle market readiness.
There are five areas of focus:
1. Infrastructure: Utilities pledge to proactively work with their state regulatory and legislative bodies to assess and address any potential system impacts from fueling large numbers of plug-in vehicles from the electrical grid.
2. Customer Support:Utilities pledge to assure that a robust customer service process is in place that can scale up to support large numbers of plug-in vehicle customer service requests.
3. Customer and Stakeholder Education: Utilities pledge to collaborate with state and local officials, public/private entities, and automakers to help implement a broad nationwide educational program highlighting: the benefits of electric transportation.
4. Vehicle and Infrastructure Incentives: Utilities pledge to work with federal, state, and local stakeholders to help develop purchase and ownership incentives (monetary/non-monetary) supporting the deployment of vehicles and infrastructure.
5. Utility Fleets: Utilities pledge to develop acquisition and operations plans for new sustainable fleet, helping drive development and significant deployment of electric transportation solutions in light-, medium-, and heavy-duty utility applications.
* The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) is the association of U.S. shareholder-owned electric companies, representing approximately 70 percent of the U.S. electric power industry.
Back to Top
Why move to electric vehicles?
To be in control of Hawaii’s energy future, we must move away from near-total dependence on imported crude oil by using energy wisely and increasing production of energy from clean, local, and renewable resources.
>Every barrel of crude oil imported into Hawaii is used as follows: about one third for ground transportation as gasoline and diesel; one third for air transportation as jet fuel; and one third to generate electricity. If we want to reduce our use of oil for electricity, we need to also reduce our use of gasoline for ground transportation.
On October 20, 2008, Hawaiian Electric Company and the State of Hawaii signed an energy agreement as part of the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI). As a roadmap for greater energy independence, HCEI’s goal is to get 70 percent of Hawaii’s energy needs from clean sources (30 percent from energy efficiency and 40 from renewables) by 2030. That goal is now state law.
One of HCEI’s commitments is to “identify and implement those incentives needed to encourage adoption of electric vehicles for individual and fleet use, and also lead by example by acquiring hybrid or electric-only vehicles for government and utility fleets.” In addition, Hawaiian Electric Company has joined with major mainland utilities in a pledge to work to bring electric vehicles to widespread use in our country. Understanding the benefits of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in Hawaii falls under this commitment.
There are many compelling reasons to do this:
* Crude oil is limited and is becoming increasingly harder to find and more costly to bring to market. When oil hit $147 a barrel in 2008, it had devastating effects on Hawaii’s economy.
* Importing so much oil – about 90 percent of our total energy needs – to an isolated location such as Hawaii means that shipping delays or interruption could cause an energy shortage.
* Burning fossil fuels results in the release of greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide, that are linked to global climate change, and other emissions. As an island state particularly vulnerable to climate change, we must do all we can to reduce emissions, especially greenhouse gas emissions.
To be in control of our energy future, we must move away from near-total dependence on imported crude oil by using energy wisely and increasing production of energy from clean, local, and renewable resources.
Back to Top
History
Hawaiian Electric Company’s involvement with electric vehicle development dates to the mid-1990s when the utility was part of a demonstration project to deploy and test EVs in its fleet. Five GEO Prizm compact EV sedans and five U.S. Electricar-Chevy S-10 EV light-duty pickup trucks were added to the fleet and a U.S. Electricar bus was acquired as an employee shuttle.
In the late 1990s through 2001, Hawaiian Electric Company installed PosiCharge rapid chargers compatible with these electric vehicles at the Ward Avenue base yard, Waiau and Kahe power plants, Koolau base yard and Ewa Town Center. A Hyundai Santa Fe electric SUV was also put in use during this period.
The Hawaiian Electric Company electric vehicles were used until parts and services were no longer available. For these demonstration projects, Hawaiian Electric Company partnered with Enova in Honolulu, which is now the Hawaii Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies, and the State of Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, as well as other organizations participating in the Honolulu Clean Cities program.
Back to Top
Links
Research and Development
Idaho National Laboratory Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity
Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Electric Transportation
Hawaii Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies (HCATT)
Battery Technology
Hymotion-A123
Plug-in Conversions
Pat’s Garage
Electric Vehicles
Chevy Volt
Nissan Leaf
Phoenix Motorcars
Tesla Motors
EV and PHEV Charging Technology
Better Place
Coulomb Technologies
AeroEnvironment
National organizations
Electric Drive Transportation Association
Plug-in America
Electric Auto Association
Plug-in Partners
Cal-cars
Hawaiian Electric’s Electric Vehicle Efforts
Back to Top
