Renewable Energy World | By: Dr, Andy Skumanich | GPE – October 04, 2017:
“EV phone home” – Life without our mobile phone seems pretty unimaginable, doesn’t it? We now carry along our phone/camera/computer in our hands, and, if you want to believe a recent movie, some of us even fall in love with the personal assistant. “(You) Siri – why am I here?…(Siri) I can’t answer that for you, can I?”
Originally published September 28, 2017: But what about microgrids, why not have a personal mobile i-power source? If you bear with me I’ll show you why that isn’t so farfetched. The mobile “i-uGrid” may already be on the way.
First, disasterous weather events and always-charged EVs are easy reasons to have them. As the recent hurricanes have made all too apparent, the occurrence of power outages is going to be a real issue in the near future. But also, EVs that can carry along a charging unit would make them very appealing. No need to hop charging station to station — imagine being completely untethered from a gas station.
What is a microgrid but a power generator, a storage block, a control unit, and a hook up to the dedicated load? I’ve already seen companies put those elements together, attach some wheels and start selling the system as a mobile microgird.
The issues with a personal mobile microgrid are the same issues faced by the original mobile phones: how to make the combination smaller, better, and affordable. And while we have a long way to go before we get to an i-uGrid with a talking OS, we’ve started down this path and it could sure use some extra creativity.
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