U.S. FERC Chief Tells Platts Energy Week TV: Electric Vehicles Can Increasingly Cut Need For Power Plants

Washington, d.C.– Platts – The chairman of the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is looking forward to a time when electric vehicles (EV) help reduce the need for fossil-fueled power plants and allow more efficient operation of plants that do operate, according to an interview aired Sunday on Platts Energy Week television program [www.plattsenergyweektv.com]. The new weekly half-hour news and talk-show program focuses on the discussion and debate of U.S. energy policy.

There are now five EVs at the University of Delaware providing regulation service to the PJM Interconnection market, Jon Wellinghoff told Platts Energy Week host Bill Loveless. PJM Interconnection is a regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. Usually conventional coal and natural gas plants provide the service, which balances conditions on the grid.

At a signal from PJM, the five vehicles when plugged in for charging can inject power into the grid when the system needs it for balancing. Each car in the test program makes from $7 to $10 a day selling the power, Wellinghoff said. Ultimately, "I see enough cars someday that could replace most of the regulation services provided by the generation in this country.”

Having EVs provide more and more of the service "will also help those plants operate more efficiently," the FERC chairman explained, since the plants will not have to ramp up and down to regulate the system, and will be able to run at their optimal heat rates.

It is Wellinghoff's view that every part of the system benefits: The plants "can run more efficiently, the cars can get paid, the consumers can get paid, and the grid can operate more efficiently and be more stable, be more reliable and flexible and resilient."

He acknowledged that it could be seen as unorthodox for a FERC chairman to focus so strongly on issues like renewable energy and energy efficiency. But, he said, "I'm interested in those things because I'm interested in saving consumers money. And we can save consumers money if we can make markets more efficient. And markets can be made more efficient if we can drive into those markets additional supplies like renewables, and also if we can help consumers participate in those markets, on the demand side, with energy efficiency and demand response. And we're having great success."

Speaking briefly on the subject of high-voltage transmission lines that many say are needed to transport power from often-remote renewable energy sites, Wellinghoff reiterated his own, and former FERC chairs', view that Congress should give the commission authority to site large power lines when states fail to do it.

States should retain the primacy they now have to site lines and determine how consumers pay for them, he said. But FERC should have the ultimate authority over large lines from offshore facilities or from Midwest wind farms, he said: If states come to impasse over siting, FERC should be able to say a line is in the national interest and authorize it.

Siting authority given to FERC in a 2005 law is limited, and a court decision rejecting FERC's interpretation of it has limited it still further.

Platts Energy Week host Bill Loveless, long-time chief editor of Platts’ Inside Energy, brings nearly three decades of energy journalism experience to the anchor chair.

Platts Energy Week airs weekly at 8 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday mornings on W*USA 9 TV in Washington, D.C. and is available online at [www.plattsenergyweektv.com] shortly thereafter. The program follows an interview format featuring guests from the Obama administration, Congress, government agencies, think tanks, the investment community and the energy industry.

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