General Motors and the electric utilities are working together to make sure that the power grid and consumers are ready for the arrival of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). The organizations announced today that they are jointly developing intelligent vehicles and "smart grid" technology in effort to avoid any potholes in enabling consumers to charge their vehicles' batteries or in the flow of electricity.

Plug-in hybrid vehicles, the first of which are expected by 2009, can run on battery power alone for 40 miles or longer, and are recharged by plugging into standard power outlets. GM will work with the research arm of the power utilities to co-develop electric standards and communications technologies that will enable vehicles to "talk" with the grid.

Building intelligence into the vehicles will enable them to avoid recharging during peak energy demand to prevent service interruptions. The vehicles will receive information from the grid about time-of-day electric rates so that they can be recharged when power is the cheapest, according to Mark Duvall, the Program Manager for Electric Transportation at EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute).

"Utilities are busy building smart grid technology that will enable them to communicate with their customers and help them manage how they use electricity," said Duvall. "We want to make sure that the vehicles are an integral part of these networks so that the process of recharging plug-in hybrid vehicles is as simple as possible."

When driving on battery power, plug-in hybrid vehicles, which are being developed by GM, Toyota, Tesla, Fisker Motors and others, can reduce the cost of driving by as much as 80 percent, according to GM. PHEVs can be recharged at home using standard 110 or 220-volts outlets, or through public charging stations that have yet to be built.

Duvall said that even if plug-in hybrids made up more than 50 percent of all vehicles on the road, their daily power draw would represent only "six to seven percent of total electricity demand." The arrival of plug-in hybrids in volume "will not cause grid to collapse, but it will cause utilities to upgrade equipment and put in greater capacity, which all has a cost," and the joint effort will target minimizing these costs, he said.

The utilities and GM will jointly study where and when plug-in owners will recharge their batteries, according to Duvall. Vehicle owners will be able to choose to recharge immediately or delay until rates are the lowest. Intelligence will be built in to allow sufficient time (up to 5 hours) to recharge the batteries before the owner is expected to get back on the road.

Utilities such as Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric are currently testing the impact of plug-in hybrids on the grid.

General Motors is developing a plug-in version of the Saturn Vue (expected in 2009) as well as building a new PHEV, the Chevrolet Volt. Britta Gross, GM's Manager of Hydrogen and Electrical Infrastructure Commercialization, said her company will work with more than 30 utilities from across the country to provide consumer education as well as to influence policy makers. "... The technology will be expensive, so we have to go to the government to get incentives to make them affordable...," Gross said.

Working with power companies "allows us to have a very specific dialog about how you do business with consumers in California.... and how do you apply for (utility-favorable) policies in New York," Gross said.

The organizations will tap into a communication stream with consumers -- their monthly utility bills -- to provide information about the benefits of plug-in hybrids well in advance of them being commercialized, she said. Plug-in hybrids are "fantastic for reducing petroleum dependence and to reduce the price of operating a vehicle," with the cost of recharging of about 80 cents, according to Gross. Working with utilities allows them to send a consistent message to consumers and to "make sure we get it right" with the technology.