National power grids are becoming “a tremendously big problem” for the future of the electric vehicle charging and infrastructure sector because of their outdated and unreliable technology and an increasing number of unplanned outages.
Speaking at the London EV Show, David DeVoe, staff engineer for the charging field service of the US-based EV manufacturer Rivian said: “We are having to work with grids from the last century and (power) lines in the air that are often at least 75 years old.”
Power grid reliability is just not good enough, he said, and we are suffering from more and more power outages. The EV charging sector uses a lot of “sensitive equipment” and “these outages can cause a lot of damage.” As a result, companies like Rivian are being forced to spend too much time and money getting everything back online and working properly again.
“We just don’t see anyone making enough investment in the grid,” DeVoe warned. And the problem will only get worse as western governments continue to promote the increased use of electric trains, electric trucks, electric metro systems, smart homes, electrically-power domestic heating systems (such as heat pumps), electric scooters, ebikes, and a shift to personal EVs without completely revamping their national power grids.
All of this activity has “laid bare the fundamental capacity problems we are seeing with the power grid in the USA. It simply cannot support the charging requirement.”
