Electric (Smart) Cars Will Help The (Smart) Grid

The common wisdom is electricity is expensive (as a consumable energy). Which is only partially
true. Because electricity is only expensive at peak time, when demand forces the suppliers to engage the most expensive power plants. Off-peak electricity is cheap. And there are even times when the suppliers would happily pay the consumers to burn it. As is already is the case in some European countries (Belgium). Because it is almost impossible to stop a nuclear power plant. And when windy, the renewable generators inject even more of what we cannot consume at 3AM.

The problem with electricity is the daily fluctuation of demand and no practical way to  balance it. The most common so far has been PSH, or Pump Storage Hydroelectricity: pumping a lake uphill off-peak and then draining it to generate back power during a peak demand period. 30% is wasted this way.

Now think about electric vehicles. They don't care when they are charged and they can store significant amount of energy. The charging interface specifications require car chargers to respond to grid messages, so actually the grid can control the demand coming from charging stations automatically. It may sound almost like a paradox, but an EV today can be recharged almost for free (when doing this off-peak). Widespread adoption of EVs (especially in cities) may be driven by the fact they potentially can be very cheap to maintain, very clean and can help balancing the daily electric power demand cycle.

I would not mind an electric car waiting for me in front of my door, fully charged during the night for free. It turns out such radical future may not be that far away...

BTW: I'm reading the fall of energy consumption in the US accelerates. 2013 was down by 2%, mainly due to technological advances. The smart-everything approach starts bearing fruits.