Madison, Wisc., Joins the EV Charging Generation
By John O'Dell June 26, 2009
Madison, Wisc., is joining the EV charging brigade as the local utility, Madison Gas and Electric, has purchased six networked battery charging machines (right)
that will be installed around the city - home to the state capital and the University of Wisconsin - beginning this summer.
The investor-owned utility is part of a small but growing group of utilities and municipal governments that are attempting to promote development of rechargeable battery-electric vehicles by installing a public charging infrastructure so potential vehicle buyers will not have to worry about finding juice to top up their cars' batteries.
MGE gets 51 percent of its electricity from coal-fired plants - the dirtiest kind of electricity - but said power for the chargers will come from renewable energy sources that provide 1 percent of its electricity.
The utility said it is purchasing EV battery chargers made by California-based Coulomb Technologies.
MGE purchased one of the state's first plug-in hybrid cars lat year and this summer plans to vehicle-to-grid technology in a new Ford Escape plug-in hybrid as part of a demonstration project with Ford.
The technology will allow the hybrid SUV to recharge when demand on the grid is lowest and to feed power stored in its batteries back into the grid at times of high demand, when extra power is needed to fend off blackouts.
On, Wisconsin!
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I wonder how they will know where the power for the chargers comes from.
Unless you run lines exclusively for the chargers, it will just come out of the grid like everything else.
firstwagon, agreed.
I'm not so sure about the whole "fending off blackouts by using power from your vehicle" plan. I wouldn't want to wake up in the morning (or alternatively to get to the parking garage after a hard day's work) only to find my car 1/4 charged because a million other people decide to over-use their energy. Suddenly I can't get where I'm going and have to waste time at a commercial charging station. It's not big deal if I work 5 miles from home, but I work 45 miles from home. That would seriously piss me off.
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