“Now is the time for everyone to prepare.”
Some Americans appear increasingly ready
to give up their gas cars for electric vehicles. But are the country’s
electric grids prepared for them?
The question is a critical one in the quest to address climate change, because transportation is now the single largest sector contributing to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. EVs are widely viewed as a key way to help change that.
“The broad answer is actually yes, the
grid can handle the introduction of large amounts of EVs,” said Matt
Stanberry, vice president of Advanced Energy Economy, a business
association dedicated to development of clean and affordable global
energy systems. “The capability is there,” Stanberry said. “The question
is how do you get there.”
Stanberry, along with others looking at
the issue, believes what’s needed is not more power, it’s more
efficiently and strategically provided power.
“Cars sit around 20, 21 hours a day.
There’s plenty of time to charge – so quite a bit of flexibility,” said
Dan Bowermaster, program manager for electric transportation at the
Electric Power Research Institute, an independent non-profit center for
public interest energy and environmental research, which has been
looking at grid readiness for EVs.
But he said with new technology coming,
such as storage and the ability to use a vehicle’s battery to power a
home or to provide extra power to the grid, “Now is the time for
everyone to prepare.”
LEARN MORE
CAN THE GRID KEEP UP WITH EXPLODING EVs GROWTH?
