Electric Cars - Lack of Infrastructure

As with any innovative technology there has to be a first group of people who buy it. And just like with any other technology, there has to be a driving force that encourages the development and participate in that new technology. The driving force behind the electric car seems to be increasing gas prices, combined with a concern for the environment.

The problem is quite simple.

The growth of the electric car industry could be a massive plus for both consumers and for the environment. Unfortunately, the grid that currently supplies our electricity isn't ready for the huge burden that electric vehicles will place upon it, and in fact it already struggles to meet our current needs, without the added burden. In short we need a better alternative-we need a smarter-grid.

Already, in the summer time, we see brown-outs occurring in cities across the nation. They occur when the peak load on the grid exceeds what it is capable of, and so triggers failures. Commonly it is the use of air conditioning, alongside other electrical devices that places the largest load on the grid. But electric vehicles will pull down more power per hour in a quick charge cycle than all of the other normal summer-time electrical usage for a house, combined. This could more than double the electricity needs of a household.

Major changes will be needed to ensure that everyone who needs power gets it, and gets it at a time that doesn't overly stress the grid. Charging your vehicle only at night will help to level the electricity usage of a household over the day. Politely asking that people do this is unlikely to solve the problem entirely, with it instead being likely to need incentives in order to encourage people to charge their vehicle only when it won't overload the grid.

This gives rise to a peak, and off-peak electricity usage. A cheaper tariff may be applied to the electricity for overnight charging in order to encourage people to only charge at this time. It may only be applied to charging a car, and be metered separately from the rest of the household, or may be handled in some other way. Other changes will need to be made in order to implement a smart-grid, including changing towards renewable power sources.

Developing a smarter-grid will take major investment from the electricity companies. Whether they will be willing to do this sooner in order to support electrical vehicle development, or will only do it when forced to by the ever increasing loads remains to be seen. What is known however, is that the electric vehicle revolution can never truly take hold until there is an infrastructure that is capable of supporting it-for what point would their be in owning a car if you cannot use it, because you cannot charge it when you need to?