CU study: PIH vehicle drivers ho-hum about electricity costs
Oct 16th
Households manage plug-in hybrids without
help from online tools, says CU-led study
help from online tools, says CU-led study
Households with plug-in hybrid vehicles, or PHVs, and smart meters actively managed how, when and where they charged their cars based on electricity rates but rarely took advantage of online feedback, a University of Colorado Boulder study found.
CU-Boulder’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, or RASEI, today presented findings from the two-year study — one of the only of its kind, combining both household and vehicle data in a smart-grid context.
“Although households had access to online feedback on electricity use, we were surprised that most were not interested in using it to control their vehicle charging,” said Barbara Farhar, principal investigator and senior research associate at RASEI. “However, households still actively managed their charging in other ways.”
The study was sponsored by Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. with the integral partnership of Xcel Energy.
A total of 142 smart-metered households were randomly selected to participate from among early volunteers for Boulder’s SmartGridCity project. Toyota loaned 28 Prius Plug-in Hybrid demonstration program vehicles to the study and Xcel Energy installed smart plugs in the garages of study households. Each household used the car for one nine-week period.
Households had access to two websites. One served as a nearly instantaneous meter of vehicle electricity consumption when the car was plugged in. The other website gave delayed feedback on overall household electricity use. Approximately 90 percent of the households looked at the websites only a few times or less. Some never looked at the websites.
Households created distinct methods of managing their vehicle charging based on personal preferences, pricing and convenience.
Initially, approximately half the households were randomly assigned to an “unmanaged” scenario, allowing PHV charging through their in-home smart plug at any time of day. The other half were randomly assigned to a “managed” scenario, which meant their smart plugs were initially programmed to charge only from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily.
Households were shown how to change their charging scenarios from “managed” to “unmanaged” or vice versa and were free to alter the scenarios in any way they wanted. Approximately half of the households had standard and the other half had time-of-use electricity rates.
Most of those with standard electricity rates preferred the “unmanaged” scenario, and most of those with time-of-use rates preferred the “managed” scenario, many using a “set it and forget it” approach. Quite a few found the time constraints of the “managed” scenario inconvenient.
“Electricity pricing appeared to drive charging behavior and time cost or convenience was also very important,” said Farhar. “People loved not having to go to the gas station.”
Other findings of the study included a high level of satisfaction among households with the car, but a low level of satisfaction with its electric-only range, about 14 miles of cruising from a full charge, which took three hours in a regular 110-volt outlet.
The PHVs averaged 68 mpg on gasoline and were used for an average of 3.2 trips per day. Altogether, the cars used 27 megawatt-hours of electricity. It was less expensive to drive on electricity as a fuel than gasoline, even when paying higher on-peak electricity rates, according to an Xcel Energy analysis.
Some households charged at locations other than home. Using data from the vehicles, study investigators are continuing to look into where and when away-from-home charging took place.
The two-year study also allowed Toyota to test the PHVs in the Colorado environment including high altitudes, temperature extremes and mountainous terrain.
“The RASEI study demonstrates the importance of testing new technologies with real customers in everyday circumstances,” said Bill Reinert, Toyota advanced technology vehicle national manager. “The results are often unexpected but help us understand the needs of potential customers and how to successfully introduce advanced technologies to the market.”
Dragan Maksimovic, CU-Boulder professor of electrical, computer and energy engineering, was the study’s co-principal investigator. Alison Peters, managing director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at CU-Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, was the senior manager.
RASEI is a joint venture with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. For more information visit http://rasei.colorado.edu/.
CU football game: when, where, & how to find it
Oct 15th
The Colorado at Oregon football game on Sat., Oct. 27, will kickoff at 1 p.m. mountain (Noon in Eugene) and will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
UCLA at Arizona State, 3:00 pm ET/Noon PT, FX
Colorado at Oregon, 3:00 pm ET/Noon PT, Pac-12 Networks
USC at Arizona, 3:30 pm ET/12:30 pm PT, ABC/ESPN2 (reverse mirror)
Washington State at Stanford, 6:15 pm ET/3:15 pm PT, Pac-12 Networks
California at Utah, 9:45 pm ET/6:45 pm PT/7:45 pm MT, Pac-12 Networks
Oregon State at Washington, 10:15 pm ET/7:15 pm PT, Pac-12 Networks
CU Business Review: Colorado’s becoming “beverage”-can capital
Oct 15th
Consumer demand is making aluminum cans more relevant than ever, according to a report from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business.
More than 92 billion aluminum beverage cans were sold in the U.S. in 2011 reflecting a decline in annual sales — particularly among standard 12-ounce cans — since the industry’s peak five years prior.
But a number of Colorado companies, including Ball Corp., are well positioned to tap new markets in the evolving industry. Ball employs more than 3,000 workers statewide, and packaging accounts for 90 percent of the company’s sales.
“Beverage industry employment is growing faster than manufacturing employment and total employment in the state and is outperforming beverage manufacturing employment nationally,” said Richard Wobbekind, editor of the quarterly Colorado Business Review.
According to the latest edition of the review, published by the Business Research Division of the Leeds School of Business, the U.S. beverage can market remains quite healthy with a unit share of just over 40 percent.
Experts attribute the sales decline of 12-ounce cans to weak economic growth, which has consumers “trading down” to less expensive products, among other factors.
By contrast, demand for specialty can sizes grew at a robust rate of approximately 15 percent last year. From the 5.5-ounce mini-can to the 32-ounce jumbo can, brand owners are leveraging the unique sizes and shapes of the beverage cans to drive differentiation in the market.
One well-known specialty package from Ball is the Alumi-Tek bottle, or aluminum pint. Brewers have enjoyed great success with the bottles, which offer re-closable caps. Craft beers and wines have increasingly found their way into aluminum cans. Even water sold in cans has grown more than 30 percent since 2008.
“The current decrease in the U.S. beverage can market is more a sign of progress than one of decline as the industry shifts away from reliance on just the 12-ounce can,” says Jim Peterson, vice president of marketing and corporate affairs for Ball Corp. “Ball is expanding into new products and capabilities to meet demand.”
Peterson cites more than $175 million in investment across the U.S., including $60 million in Colorado for a new specialty can line in the company’s Golden, Colo., facility and a nearly $5 million expansion of its package research and development operations in Westminster, Colo.
Colorado beverage makers also benefit from state laws that support self-distribution, allowing young brands and small producers to go to market. New Belgium Brewing of Fort Collins, Colo., America’s third-largest craft brewery, started selling beer out of the back of a station wagon.
The Business Research Division of CU-Boulder’s Leeds School of Business conducts Colorado-focused economic and marketing studies, collaborating with faculty researchers, government entities, business leaders, nonprofit organizations and students. For more information visit http://leeds.colorado.edu/brd#coloradobusinessreview.
