It's 2020. You drive your plug-in hybrid electric car home at 6 p.m., plug it in, let it charge via the solar panels on your roof or the wind power coming from the grid, and you leave it charging until the morning. Sounds simple enough, right? It's not. Utilities have a long way to go before they're prepared for the impending onslaught of energy-sucking vehicles--and they might not all be ready in time.
One utility that thinks it will: Southern California Edison. The utility covers a massive swath of land that includes 5 million meters, 14 million residents. By 2020, the utility's customers could have up to 1 million EVs on the road. But SoCal Edison is already gearing up for the early adopters, explained Pedro Pizarro, the executive vice president of Power Operations for Southern California Edison. "If you have a block with three or four Priuses, that's probably an early adopter neighborhood," he said. SoCal Edison is in the midst of surveying its customers to find out which ones plan on buying EVs early. The zip codes with the highest amount of early adopters will likely receive upgraded wiring and circuitry that can handle all the excess pressure on the grid from EVs.
To read the full, original article click on this link: What Will an Electric Vehicle-Ready Smart Grid Infrastructure Look Like? | Fast Company
Author: Ariel
Schwartz
