Utilities and the Onslaught of EVs--How Will They Be Accommodated

Matt Chester of Chester Energy and Policy recently had the pleasure of joining a USEA Virtual Press Briefing as a member of the media asking pointed questions to key leaders in the sector. The full details and video can be found at this USEA.org link, and the relevant information is also copied below.

Sometime between now and the decade’s end, the nation’s electric utilities will begin to contend with a surge. That is when electric vehicles (EVs) will begin arriving in numbers large enough to tax the edge of the grid and to have utilities scrambling for ways of accommodating the new demand in peak hours. 

S&P Global projects that 40 percent of new car sales in 2030 will be electric; other studies’ projections go as high as 50 percent. 

Each new EV will need to be charged — likely, that will be at the end of the day when utilities already have difficulty meeting the peak.

The challenge is made more difficult because the new demand for electricity service will be uneven. 

Some utilities are concerned there will be clusters where affluent, well-educated communities will go electric more completely than in working-class or rural areas. EVs are more likely to be concentrated in big city suburbs than in downstate areas. 

Everything will be in play to meet the escalating demand for day-end electricity, including rate design to dissuade customers from charging before 10 p.m.; using two-way flows from some EVs,  like the Ford F-150 Lighting, as storage; and requiring that certain housing developments have better connectors and transformers to manage the additional loads and stresses.

These critical questions and more will be addressed in this briefing, which will consist of a panel of experts taking questions from knowledgeable journalists. USEA Acting Executive Director Sheila Hollis will give opening remarks. Llewellyn King, nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and broadcaster, organized this briefing and will moderate.

On the experts panel:

• Phil Dion, Senior Vice President, Customer Solutions, Edison Electric Institute

• Britt Reichborn-Kjennerud, Director for e-Mobility, ConEdison

• Lon Huber, Senior Vice President, Pricing and Customer Solutions, Duke Energy

• Kyle Pynn, Director Transportation Electrification, Burns & McDonnell
  Erin Autin, Senior Director of Research and Content, Zpryme

On the reporters panel:

• Jennifer Hiller, The Wall Street Journal

• Ken Silverstein, Forbes

• Herman Trabish, Utility Dive

• Matt Chester, Energy Central

• Markham Hislop, Energi