Getting ready the Power Grid for EVs with IoT

The power grid isn’t prepared for electrical autos, however IoT will help. Nick Tumilowicz, Director of Product Administration at Itron, joins Ryan Chacon on the IoT For All Podcast to debate the position of IoT in making ready the power grid for EVs. They discuss concerning the dangers of not making ready the grid for EVs, IoT options for making ready the grid for EVs, EV heterogeneity, standardization within the EV trade, how the power trade will evolve, and the way forward for power and electrical autos.

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About Nick Tumilowicz

As Director of Product Administration at Itron, Nick Tumilowicz leads the Distributed Power Administration enterprise unit, accountable for world product growth of demand response and DER options. Previous to becoming a member of Itron, Tumilowicz led world analysis and growth at EPRI, accountable for transmission, distribution, and customer-connected power storage analysis. He’s a strategist and acknowledged skilled in DER administration, together with photo voltaic, storage, and EV know-how leveraging many years of distinctive trade expertise to advance world markets towards a clear power future.

Excited by connecting with Nick? Attain out on LinkedIn!

About Itron

Itron allows utilities and cities to soundly, securely, and reliably ship crucial infrastructure options to communities in additional than 100 nations. Their portfolio of sensible networks, software program, companies, meters, and sensors helps prospects higher handle electrical energy, gasoline, and water assets. They assist enhance the standard of life, guarantee the security, and promote the well-being of thousands and thousands of individuals across the globe. Itron is devoted to making a extra resourceful world.

Key Questions and Subjects from this Episode:

(00:47) Introduction to Nick Tumilowicz and Itron

(02:17) Function of IoT in making ready the grid for EVs

(05:59) Dangers of not making ready the grid for EVs

(07:47) IoT options for making ready the grid for EV progress

(10:06) The problem of EV heterogeneity

(11:41) Standardization within the EV trade

(14:14) How the power trade will evolve

(15:39) Way forward for power and EVs

(18:08) Study extra and observe up

Transcript:

– [Ryan] Welcome Nick to the IoT For All Podcast. Thanks for being right here this week.

– [Nick] Yeah, admire you having me.

– [Ryan] Completely. Earlier than we get into the dialog, I’d find it irresistible when you would simply give our viewers a fast introduction about your self and the corporate.

– [Nick] So, title’s Nick Tumilowicz. I’m the Director of Product Administration at Itron. And for the previous few many years, I’ve been offering know-how options to essentially assist the evolution of the power transition. And so 20 years in the past, that was a sluggish roll. And immediately it’s shifting at a really quick tempo. So far as what I’m doing immediately at Itron, there’s 4 pillars to what we’re engaged on immediately.

So for the previous 40 years, Itron is very well often known as being a metering firm, offering advances in sensible meters like superior meter studying, superior meter infrastructure 1.0 for the previous 20 years, and immediately what we name as an trade superior meter infrastructure 2.0, which successfully, and I’ll discuss slightly bit extra about it, is successfully placing an embedded server inside the meter, which is now successfully an power useful resource gateway.

So, that’s the story of Itron inside that, in distributed power administration. We do power forecasting for the previous 30 years and for the previous 15 years, demand response, and now DER administration, and what we’ll be speaking about immediately, which is electrical autos. 

– [Ryan] Yeah, unbelievable. So let’s go forward and dive proper into to the dialog round electrical autos.

One of many issues that I do know is vital to type of tackle and possibly simply clarify at a excessive degree to our viewers is with extra electrical autos on the market on the roads being adopted, the power grid must be ready for that. And when you may clarify only for our viewers who will not be as acquainted what that precisely means, like how these two tie collectively.

What’s vital to notice, what must be carried out after which how IoT applied sciences are enjoying a task in making ready that grid for that elevated adoption of electrical autos. 

– [Nick] Yeah, no, these are nice questions. And I believe it’s a superb alternative to simply attempt to clear the air as a result of numerous media whether or not it’s information or social media likes to blast these broad brushstrokes because it pertains to can our grid deal with it.

And like several good engineer would reply, that actually relies upon. And it’s very particular to geography and the infrastructure that you’ve to have the ability to assist that new load. We, this isn’t our first rodeo as an electrical trade. We skilled this again within the Nineteen Fifties when this factor known as the air conditioner grew to become low cost and ubiquitous and have become extensively obtainable. And so we discovered ourselves able on our heels, so to talk, to carry out transmission and distribution upgrades to accommodate all of these new electrical masses. And within the very comparable vein, we’re again right here within the 2020s with a brand new load arguably a a lot bigger load, doubtlessly as much as 20 kilowatts per automobile.

And the, I believe the message and what we are able to do as an trade and Itron particularly is taking a look at is how we are able to successfully construct that bridge. We are able to nonetheless have a look at one, three, and 5 12 months regulatory cycles to place in to do transmission distribution upgrades. As a matter of truth, immediately, if you wish to hook up 20 buses in New York Metropolis to have the, give the youngsters a clear trip to highschool this Fall, you’re ready someplace on the order of three to 4 years to get these infrastructure upgrades in place.

So the bridge there may be software program and constructing confidence that there’s a utility grade software program purposes and instruments that we are able to use simply, to simply be certain that these 20 buses don’t cost on the identical time. We nonetheless get to highschool, nevertheless it’s only a matter of placing in the proper algorithms and the proper computation to optimize that charging.

– [Ryan] And discuss to me slightly bit extra about the place IoT applied sciences are enjoying a task on this and in what, how they, how that each one matches collectively.

– [Nick] I believe what’s actually typical is we’re dealing rather a lot with this, I assume this continuation of cloud integrations and APIs. And so now we have units within the case of electrical autos, it additionally extends and applies to PV, photo voltaic, or stationary storage, a battery which may grasp within your storage. And immediately, aggregators are connecting to these edge units, offering these APIs and corporations like Itron are aggregating all of those system data, in order that approach we are able to management these parts.

Within the case of a EV bus, the EV provide gear or the charger itself, oftentimes, we immediately also can interrogate and supply command and management on to the bus by way of telematics. These are a pair totally different choices of how we’re bridging that hole immediately. 

– [Ryan] If the mandatory steps to arrange the grid for this adoption of EV is just not carried out appropriately, carried out nicely, what dangers does that go away us uncovered to?

And simply once more, speaking in it from like somebody who’s very new to not likely understanding all this, as a result of actually, I’m undecided how many individuals actually put two and two collectively that extra electrical autos means clearly extra power demand and the way that impacts the power grid. I believe lots of people simply take it without any consideration that they will simply go plug their automobile in and cost issues, their home is gonna be positive, however clearly that is gonna have an effect. So what’s that danger appear like for not addressing this or doing this appropriately?

– [Nick] It is a nice query, and I believe it actually involves that inexperienced field that may be sitting in your yard or that grey canister that’s sitting on the electrical pole above your avenue.

That’s the constraint, and if that may be a, has a 100 kVA marker on it, then you possibly can rapidly run the maths and say after 5 autos on the finish of this cul-de-sac, you’re beginning to overload that transformer. And so I believe what answered your query is that when you ignore that, and also you’re not proactive, then you may doubtlessly undergo from an outage.

So I believe what we’re providing at Itron and throughout the trade is let’s be proactive about this, and let’s generate warmth maps to see which communities, particularly which transformers are beginning to warmth up quicker than others, and let’s surgically strike in order that approach we can provide prospects the selection and the consolation that they want or the reliability. 

– [Ryan] With regards to the know-how and the options within the IoT house, what precisely, the place’s the massive worth that they’re offering in all of this? And we’ve truly, I’ve spoken to some folks many months in the past who’ve constructed grid administration or grid monitoring options with IoT applied sciences, however I’m simply curious to increase on {that a} bit extra to know that as EVs develop, how IoT will proceed to most likely play a task and proceed to supply entry to that knowledge and data that enables this to scale as extra autos hit the market and extra issues are pulling on the grids power.

– [Nick] That’s a fantastic query. So I believe the best way this actually began is we at all times throw {hardware} on the downside. Linux and again servers. And now you’ve obtained factors of failure. You’ve obtained twisted pairs which are speaking by way of some customary or proprietary protocol. So we’re shifting now, I believe, away from all of this science experiment, so to talk, however that’s labored successfully for the previous 20 years or so. Right this moment, as I discussed, numerous that is going to the cloud by way of APIs. Lots of these system producers are leverage that as a part of their enterprise mannequin to promote these APIs and grid companies if you’ll. There are some limitations with that nevertheless. So when you occur to be a utility that actually wants excessive constancy, low latency knowledge and actual time stream, that’s the place firms like Itron are available.

And particularly, as I discussed initially, we now have a meter. You’re taking a buyer profile or a program, you drop it in on the meter and drives outcomes and outcomes by speaking on to these units, name it a faculty bus. However moreover, it’s doing that in context of the grid situations.

So how loaded is that transformer? Do you have got any thermal or voltage violations? And so with that, now you have got the power to have that 360 view actually telling that bus when and the place to cost. 

– [Ryan] Now with regards to this challenges of such a answer that must be or that’s being constructed, being carried out for the adoption of electrical autos, how does the, I assume, various nature of the various kinds of autos, the totally different fashions of autos, the firmware, the power that’s required for every of those autos with regards to charging, how does that various nature of issues have an effect on fixing this downside? 

– [Nick] There’s two elements to that, Ryan. So, one is there’s a technical element, which is are we going to go down the highway of proprietary protocols and capturing that by every make. Is Ford going to do one thing totally different than GM, which is totally different than Tesla?

So now we have to be aware. Ideally, as an trade to maneuver ahead collectively, we’d all method some sense of trade requirements, which I believe is what we’re actually taking pictures for. The second vector there may be the enterprise mannequin. So now we have an elephant within the room, if you’ll, occurring proper now between who owns the shoppers. The electrical utility? Is it the automobile OEM?

And so how will we work collectively? And Itron’s making an attempt to determine with these two entities, how can we transfer collectively to simply be capable of handle this so we are able to enable you and your viewers to undertake as many electrical autos as they’d like within the service territory close to them. 

– [Ryan] Lots of instances once we speak about it with IoT options applied sciences are totally different requirements that fall into place for bringing new applied sciences to market, how they work collectively and the way they get adopted.

Is there an identical state of affairs on this house relating to simply trade requirements that have to be adopted or issues like that? 

– [Nick] Yeah, for positive. I gained’t bore you with all the technical particulars of all of the totally different requirements which are on the market, however you have got your customary, your UL, Underwriter Laboratories, you have got your IEEEs, you have got your IECs, in addition to possibly just like the CSAs of the world which have these, that the problem there may be that this could take 5 to 10 years for lots of those requirements to be adopted.

So this is likely one of the challenges. And within the meantime, what we’re making an attempt to do is simply transfer ahead to simply show, particularly to the grid planners and the operators, that they will develop confidence on this managed software program sort of state of affairs and ideally skate to the puck and be capable of do that in a neighborhood and an autonomous approach within the occasion that the cloud can’t be relied upon.

– [Ryan] Form of in that very same type of thought relating to communication protocols, which is, once more, one other factor that we talked rather a lot about in IoT. How do you, how is it being dealt with when there are proprietary protocols, customized APIs and issues like that working in type of the identical atmosphere to have the ability to remedy this downside. 

– [Nick] Effectively, the very first thing I believe that’s a problem is that it at all times provides price, proper?

So when now we have proprietary protocols, or now we have custom-made integrations that must occur, then this slows, I believe, down what we’re actually making an attempt to do right here is now we have actually aggressive decarbonization objectives. And so how are we going to have the ability to accommodate the 4 million autos within the U.S. immediately or the ten million autos globally that have been bought this 12 months and 35% 12 months over 12 months progress subsequent 12 months. So actually need to cut back that price. We actually must standardize. So it makes it more difficult. The excellent news is I believe we’re getting higher at a few of these API integrations to the units.

We’ve had a couple of years to develop these APIs. However ultimately, I believe that’s going to undergo a bit from that actual time automation that I believe goes to be requested now and sooner or later. 

– [Ryan] One of many final questions I needed to ask you earlier than we transition to wrapping up right here is how do you see the trade evolving with regards to OEMs, electrical utility, simply various kinds of, the trade shifting and that battle for patrons.

How is that being considered or how is {that a} problem to the house as nicely? 

– [Nick] That’s powerful. And that’s a that’s a really giant query to deal with, and I believe one factor that we, I believe, as Itron are recognizing is that the majority of our prospects immediately at Itron are utilities or cities.

And so now we have that means to supply applications for his or her prospects, and now we simply want to herald the system integrators, makes and fashions into that fold. So a automobile OEM could be a superb instance of certainly one of them to say, hey, utility X and Itron’s managing some applications sends 1000’s of autos underneath this make and mannequin.

Let’s work collectively to discover a technique to make it mutually helpful for each the automobile OEMs and the utilities and most significantly for the client who’s shopping for the electrical energy and for the client who purchased the automobile. 

– [Ryan] The place do you see all this going, simply typically talking? Clearly adoption of electrical autos is rising and that is going to turn out to be extra of a problem that must be solved. Not simply the grid preparation however simply throughout the board, there’s going to be challenges I’m positive that come up. What’s the future outlook appear like, or how do you all view issues so far as the place we’re headed, the place we’re going over the following 12, 18, 24 plus months? 

– [Nick] I believe within the subsequent few years, what we’re going to begin to see is numerous stress being placed on utilities to speed up the adoption of EVs, proper?

You’re going to begin to see even by way of interconnection processes prospects requesting, I actually invested on this or a state has offered funding for X quantity of municipal buses they usually can solely interconnect a couple of. So that’s going to be within the very close to time period utilities and these fleet house owners and operators or mild responsibility automobile house owners such as you and me are going to be requesting that we aren’t delayed by the incapabilities of the grid. Therefore, constructing out that answer, and I believe over time, as we’ve demonstrated with stationary storage, large batteries which are deployed to the tunes of gigawatts immediately, we had the very same downside seven years in the past, and no person trusted it as a result of that’s the job of a grid operator is to see it not solely as an asset, nevertheless it actually is a legal responsibility as a result of batteries can do each issues, go each methods.

If we are able to do that very same factor, carbon copy it, do it with batteries on wheels, I believe we’re going to be higher for it. After which lastly, I believe, we’re truly demonstrating it proper now with 6 million meters deployed throughout a dozen utilities, is that native management and the automation that I spoke of.

So I believe actually that’s the place issues are going to be headed sooner or later as a result of it reduces the fee, it reduces the extent of effort, and it permits prospects to undertake what it’s they need to undertake with the present grid that now we have. 

– [Ryan] Nice technique to break all that down. It is a subject that I do know wants positively extra dialogue round it for positive given the expansion of electrical autos.

And I don’t suppose many individuals actually contemplate the influence it has on and necessities which are wanted to make this truly a sustainable factor as adoption grows. So I’m glad we have been capable of have a couple of minutes right here to talk and supply some insights for our viewers. If our viewers needs to observe up on this dialog, study extra about what you all have happening, simply contact base in any approach, what’s one of the simplest ways they will try this?

– [Nick] Yeah, you possibly can at all times attain out to our web site at itron.com. And no matter, we even have a superb group on employees, and we are able to publish that later for observe up. 

– [Ryan] Effectively, Nick, thanks once more a lot for taking the time. Actually admire it and excited to get this out to our viewers. 

– [Nick] Yeah. Thanks, Ryan. Respect it.