Busting EV Myths #3: The Grid is Falling! The Grid Is Falling!
All great mythologies feature a tale of the apocalypse! The Norse had Ragnarok, when wolves ate the Sun. The Aztecs predicted a never-ending solar eclipse and the ancient Japanese feared a day the Goddess of that great glowing globe in the sky would hide herself away.
Notice a pattern here? Something took away the source of energy on which those civilizations depended to survive.
So what better way to demonize Electric Vehicles than suggesting their adoption will crash the electricity grid that keeps our own civilization running.
In February of 2016, The Washington Post reported the formation of a lobbying group intent on spending $10 Million per year to kill the electric car. And that’s where the proliferation of the collapsing grid story began. Those concocted stories spread so widely that virtually everyone showing off a newly purchased EV to their friends and neighbors was confronted with the possibility they were personally moving up the date of our electrical doomsday.
But that’s not only not going to happen, the reality is that EVs are poised to make the electrical grid even more reliable.
Let’s start with the current electrical grid…
A recent study by the University of Victoria’s Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions stated that even during the peak demand period of a bitter BC Winter, the unused capacity of the current grid had the juice to charge an additional 2.4 Million EVs.
Across the country, Quebec Hydro released figures equating the usage of the average EV with the power drawn from the grid to operate a home hot water heater.
They also estimated that they could meet the needs of an additional 1 Million EVs before needing to spend a single additional penny on system upgrades.
Those provincial numbers suggest the grid won’t feel so much as a small pinch as EV adoption increases. Meanwhile, a technology built into virtually all EVs on the market is designed to not only reduce the impact of car charging but provide help should the grid need it.
Onboard computer systems already allow owners to set a time at which they want their car to be fully charged, as in “I have to leave for work at 7:00 AM”. The EV operating system then calculates its rate of charge, taking into account the peak hours of general electrical usage and staggering its needs to avoid taxing the system.
As the Use of Solar Panels increases, EVs utilizing solar charging will further support the Grid by charging during the hours of Sunlight and making it available to discharge to the grid during peak usage hours in the evening.
Despite what you hear from the cheerleaders of Doom, your air conditioning and phone charger aren’t about to stop working because you and all your neighbors are driving electric.
Perhaps the real bright spot in busting this myth is that the wallets of those opposed to the adoption of EVs have been lightened by $10 Million a year while the number of EVs on the road grows daily.
