Thinking differently about EV charging
Should we really be charging at home and at night
Is it really best to charge EV's at home over night - that is very "old style electricity grid". Maybe we need to think differently.
Many analysts think EV charging is something that will happen at night and at home, focusing on the current off peak demand period. But researchers at Stanford argue that shifting EV charging from home to work, and night to day, could cut costs and help the grid by matching demand with the cheap supply from solar and wind. This could change which business model is the winner in the EV charging industry.
I discuss the outlook for EV charging in a blog for The Sustainable Investor, as part of the series on the different ways we need to change how we think about electricity use in a renewable world.
Researchers from Stanford University, in a research paper snappily titled, “Scalable probabilistic estimates of electric vehicle charging given observed driver behavior” looked at how EV driver charging behaviour could increase future stress on the Western United States electricity grid. In a little over a decade, they found that rapid EV growth alone could increase peak electricity demand by up to 25%, assuming a continued dominance of residential, night time charging.
However, shifting current EV charging from home to work, and night to day, could cut costs and help the grid. How does this work? Put simply, California has excess electricity during late mornings and early afternoons, thanks mainly to its solar capacity. If most EVs were to charge during these times, then the cheap power would be used instead of wasted (curtailed). If most EVs continue to charge at night, then the state will need to build more generators – likely powered by natural gas – or expensive energy storage on a large scale.
Investing in the infrastructure required to charge the growing number of EV’s should be a massive opportunity, potentially allowing investors to make a real difference to the transitions and earn a fair financial return. But what if the big opportunity isn't in at home EV chargers and/or fast chargers on motorways, but actually mid-sized, mid-speed chargers that can be used at workplaces and at travel and/or shopping destinations - integrated with battery storage and demand management tools!