IBM and Honda to enable smart charging for electric vehicles

IBM and American Honda Motor Company have teamed up with US energy provider Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) on a new pilot project that would enable communication between electric vehicles (EVs) and the power grid for better charging based on the load on the power grid and the vehicle’s battery state. The project would enable energy providers to see charging patterns of vehicles and effectively manage increased demand during peak charging periods. The load on power grids from EVs, though negligible at present, could become significant in the near future as the growing number of EVs is estimated to touch around 2.9 million worldwide by 2017. The project will see IBM using its cloud based software platform to combine power grid data with data from a Honda’s Fit EV battery electric vehicle to create an individualised charging pattern for the vehicle. When the Honda Fit EV is connected to a charging point, the vehicle’s telematics system sends a charge request to the IBM’s Electric Vehicle Enablement Platform. Here the vehicle data such as the battery state is merged with data about the power grid received from PG&E by the IBM system to create an individualised charging schedule for the vehicle. This schedule is transmitted back to the vehicle in a few moments. Using this schedule the vehicle can be charged to the required level without overloading the power grid. If required, the energy provider could instruct some vehicle owners to shift their charging times to non-peak hours so that the supply of power to other customers is not disrupted and the power grid continues to function smoothly.