EVs + AI = A Grid Revolution
Source: Scott McGaraghan | · SMART ENERGY INTERNATIONAL · | June 1, 2023
So, what’s it going to take to get you into a nice new grid asset today?’
Said no one, ever. Yet many of us in the energy industry tend to think about EVs as grid assets. Or worse, we think of them as headache-inducing for our evolving electrical grid and as a problem to be solved. To consumers, EVs are still just a way to get where they want to go, albeit one that’s cleaner than other alternatives.
It’s easy to see why some utilities view EVs with concern, given that an EV can double a house’s peak demand. The recently announced Federal incentives in the US will spur demand, however, and that will in turn bring prices down even further through manufacturing efficiencies. This is great news for making EVs more accessible, allowing a much broader swath of the population to take advantage of their benefits. But this growth will just compound the challenges for utilities. Fortunately, advances in digital control platforms enhanced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) now make it possible to manage EV charging capacity in creative ways. EVs can serve, rather than compromise, power grids.
The benefits of coordinated charging go beyond simply solving the problems prompted by EVs themselves. As the grid shifts its generation blend towards renewable generation, all of those EV batteries can be leveraged to capture excess renewable energy and release it when the wind fades or the sun goes down. This is a classic use case for Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), aggregations of generation, load and energy storage that can respond to the needs of power grids in real-time. VPPs are the glue that will hold the decarbonised and decentralised grid of the future together and EVs are a major contributor to making that glue stick.
Still, there is a paradox that our industry will have to address: for EVs to become grid assets, we can’t think of them as grid assets. EVs will proliferate only to the extent that consumers continue to choose them over gas-powered alternatives. While there are many who will place a value on their EV’s potential to support the growth of renewable generation, that value could be called into question the first time they wake up to a dead battery.