ROSEMEAD, Calif.--Southern California Edison (SCE), the nation’s leading operator of nearly 300 electric vehicles (EV), and Chevron Technology Ventures LLC today dedicated a comprehensive hydrogen energy station evaluation and demonstration program at the utility’s Rosemead headquarters. The five-year demonstration, co-funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), will provide valuable understanding of hydrogen’s potential for future transportation needs.

John Bryson, chairman, Edison International, said that SCE’s hydrogen and fuel cell EV evaluation and demonstration program are part of the company’s continued commitment to research and development in electric transportation. They are a component of Edison International’s larger strategy for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions – switching to cleaner transportation fuels, increased purchases of renewable energy, increased support for energy efficiency and investment in emerging clean technologies.

“Strengthening energy security and environmental protections will drive development of next generation transportation technologies. In the future, fuel cells powered by hydrogen may be part of the solution,” Bryson said.

The SCE station is among the first facilities in Southern California to fully explore the electrolyzer process to generate hydrogen. Today, there are basically two methods of generating hydrogen fuel. One converts a fossil-based fuel into hydrogen, while the other method, known as electrolysis, passes electricity through water to separate the hydrogen and oxygen molecules. It is this electrolyzer process that SCE is most interested in studying for future applications.

• An on-site, state-of-the-art alkaline electrolyzer that produces up to 40 kilograms (kgs) of hydrogen per day with 60 kgs of storage.
• An SCE-designed, advanced “power analyzing system” that gathers detailed system-wide energy impact data on the entire hydrogen production process.
• Advanced and redundant safety systems including hydrogen flame detectors, and hydrogen gas detectors with real time and simultaneous monitoring between SCE and Chevron.
• A fleet of up to nine zero-emission Hyundai fuel cell cars, powered by UTC Power fuel cells that will be evaluated as part of the station’s operational demonstration.
• The Hyundai fuel cell vehicles include a GPS tracking system and advanced data logging capabilities to evaluate their performance in a “real world” application.

“At each Chevron Hydrogen station, we’re using a different technology. This will help us understand which technologies work best and what factors need to be in place to make hydrogen a viable transportation fuel,” said Rick Zalesky, Chevron vice president of hydrogen and biofuels.

The SCE and Chevron partnership is an example of SCE’s commitment to join with major automakers, federal and state government organizations and our customers to fully understand the potential of transportation connecting to the electric grid.

Related Facts
The electric grid is basically the only “alternative fuel” infrastructure that is ubiquitous today in the U.S.

• Electricity as a transportation fuel is 25-50% the cost of a gallon of gasoline equivalent.
• SCE’s EV fleet covers almost 100,000 miles a month and has traveled more than 14 million miles since the mid '90s. Several EVs achieved more than 100,000 miles on their original battery packs in a test program.
• Since the inception of SCE’s EV program, company vehicles have avoided the consumption of more than 700,000 gallons of gasoline and avoided 7,500 tons of global warming carbon dioxide emissions and more than 1,700 tons of air pollutants.
• SCE’s Electric Vehicle Technical Center (EVTC), founded in 1993, conducts extensive plug-in electric vehicle battery testing with major battery manufacturers and the DOE to evaluate system reliability in both mobile and stationary applications,