EV push threatens to strain power grids and threaten reliability

The Biden administration has announced its aims to meet 50% electric vehicle (EV) sales by 2030. To achieve this, the government has given incentives, such as the $7,500 tax credit per purchase and $7.5 billion funding allocation under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The attempts to encourage EV use could cause severe strain on the already questionable and overburden nation’s power grids, threatening blackouts and electricity shortages in times of peak demand.

Raising electric vehicles’ number to 22 million by 2030, up from 1% of road vehicles currently, could require as much as $125 billion investment in grids to meet the heightened demand. This sum includes the upgrades of power generation, grid storage, transmission and distribution upgrades, and EV chargers and infrastructure. Researchers suggest mitigating strategies, like encouraging EV owners to charge during the day, investing in public chargers at downtown locations and workplaces. But EV adoption needs additional transmission to improve grid capacity and come along with renewable energy sources for more reliability.

Meeting the requirement of EVs’ demand sufficiently presents a “daunting” challenge, as renewables would have to increase from 230 gigawatts to over 600 gigawatts in ten years. Failure to adopt mitigation strategies, such as those suggested by the MIT researchers, would cause power shortages, increasing EV battery charging costs, possibly leading to an undesirable outcome for the transport sector, and impede the progress of climate change’s fight.