BY JAMES BRUGGERS reports for Today’s Climate
With electric vehicle sales climbing, utilities are investing in thousands of new EV charging stations, recognizing that if they don’t move now, they could lose out on a growing and increasingly competitive market.
The latest example is Duke Energy, which this week proposed a $76 million program in North Carolina that it described as the largest investment in electric vehicle infrastructure among utilities in the Southeast.
“This is definitely part of a broader movement in the electricity sector to electric transportation,” said Noah Garcia, a transportation energy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. “They are seeing the opportunity is ripe now as the technology has matured.”
Utilities also see selling power to motorists “as a way to shield or insulate them from other shifts in power sectors,” Garcia said. It could help them make up for some sales losses as increases in energy efficiency and private rooftop solar, for example, cut into growth in traditional electricity demand.
A lack of charging stations has been an impediment to electric vehicle sales in many parts of the country, but that landscape is starting to change.
States have started requiring power companies to add charging stations. Some utilities are moving on their own to fill the gap. And a variety of companies, as well as local governments and communities, are putting in their own charging stations.
Tesla, which is currently selling the most electric vehicles in the United States, has chargers at hundreds of locations in the United States and 1,400 globally, and other automakers are also getting in the game.
Electrify America, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, has expansive plans stemming from the legal settlement over its diesel emissions cheating scandal. It’s investing $2 billion over 10 years in electric vehicle infrastructure and education, including putting in fast-charging stations that can add 20 miles per minute in 39 states, and chargers in 17 major metro areas. Volkswagen is separately funding charging stations in dozens of states through an environmental mitigation trust set up under the settlement.
California, Oregon and, most recently, New Mexico, have passed legislation requiring utilities to submit investment proposals to their regulators to accelerate transportation electrification, Garcia said. New Jersey and Illinois are actively pursuing similar legislation, he said.
There is a clear incentive for the utilities to start providing charging infrastructure sooner rather than later, said Brett Smith, an auto industry researcher at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“If the independent companies are in all the prime spots,” he said, “what is left for the utilities?”
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