Electric cars will need juice

Utilities work with N.C. State to deliver it without more power plants

With gasoline prices orbiting in the stratosphere, Jim Bartlett relies on a cheaper alternative to fuel his pickup truck: a standard wall outlet.

Bartlett's truck is powered by electricity, not gasoline. Bartlett, a mechanical engineer who lives in Cary, juices up his truck by plugging in. Instead of filling a gasoline tank, he recharges 1,600 pounds of batteries.

His cost is equivalent to only about 60 cents a gallon to recharge. Meanwhile his neighbors are paying $4 a gallon at the pump.

But if simple math demonstrates the reason for a renewed interest in electric cars, another calculus suggests that electric cars could lead to a logistical nightmare.

"You don't want to build more power plants to accommodate all these electric vehicles coming online," said Alex Huang, director of the N.C. State's new electric car research project.

"If [electric cars] ... cause blackouts, either you have to build new power plants, or you have to shut down somebody."

Utilities in the state are working with N.C. State University's newly created Advanced Transportation Energy Center to avert an energy crisis that potentially looms in the plug-in hybrid bonanza.

Next up: Plug-in hybrid

For decades, electric cars had been hobbled by a major drawback that made them impractical: a short driving range rarely exceeding 50 miles. Hybrid technology, combining an electric motor with a gasoline engine, gave the cars unlimited range.

Now a new generation of electric cars -- plug-in hybrids -- are about to hit the market. They boost power storage to deliver more than 100 miles a gallon.

Electric cars have another plus: By drawing their energy from power plants, electric cars reduce overall pollution and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Major automakers expect to introduce the first commercial plug-in electric models in two years. Some predict that half of all new cars sold in about a quarter-century could be plug-in electric vehicles.

Getting enough juice

But to gain wide acceptance, electric cars will need access to electricity, and plenty of it. Some will recharge from a standard 110- volt outlet, draining as much power as about 1 1/2 refrigerators. But electric cars that require 220-volt outlets, the kind used by electric stoves and clothes dryers, will drain as much power as a central air conditioner.

That won't be a problem as long as the cars recharge at night, when energy demand is low and utilities have cheap power to spare.

The U.S. Department of Energy has said that even if all the nation's cars switched from gas to electricity, power plants could fuel 84 percent of the cars during off-peak hours, mostly at night.

But if plug-in hybrids catch on, they are expect to trigger an appetite for power on demand, and businesses are likely to oblige by providing power outlets for convenient recharging.

A study by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory said in March that the worst-case scenario would require the construction of 160 power plants nationwide if all plug-in hybrids recharged in the daytime in 2030, when the plug-ins are expected to be ubiquitous.

"You've got to have incentives in place to delay charging until nighttime," said Stan Hadley a senior researcher at the Oak Ridge laboratory. "Otherwise people will charge whenever they have the opportunity."

Selling more power

Electric cars represent a lucrative business opportunity that would boost utilities' revenue. To maximize those sales, utilities would want customers to recharge at night, when the most efficient power plants are generating the cheapest energy.