Powering Resilient EV Infrastructure

According to Guidehouse Insights, North American investments in smart grid upgrades are expected to reach over $25 billion from the beginning of 2019 through 2021. However, US grid reliability indicators are expected to decline at the same time, largely a function of major events such as the California wildfires of 2019 and 2020 and the Texas ice storm of 2021. As the impacts of climate change accelerate, extreme weather events are likely to continue, further challenging overall grid reliability.

The increasing penetration of renewable energy and the electrification of buildings and transportation pose additional challenges to the grid. These challenges further strain capital planning and real-time grid operations to balancing supply and demand with grid support services such as peaking capacity, demand response, and other ancillary services. What does this mean for the electric vehicle (EV) market, poised for major growth in the coming decades? An unreliable grid not only threatens business continuity and inconveniences consumers, but it also threatens the resilience of transportation networks.

Among the solutions to this grid reliability challenge is the dual purpose microgrid. Essentially, it is a local power system that can overcome long-duration power outages and provide services to the larger grid and wholesale power markets. The dual purposes are power resilience at an EV charging site and revenuegenerating power services to the larger grid.