SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Some people are surprised to find out Flex Alerts — as we have seen in the state recently — include guidance on when you should charge electric vehicles.
It raises the question: How can an already strained electrical grid support EV chargers as the state continues pushing electric vehicles?
Gov. Gavin Newsom's office says there are over 1.1 million EVs registered in California -- nearly 40% of all EVs in the country.
California plans to require all new cars, trucks, and SUVs to run on electricity or hydrogen by 2035 under a policy approved by regulators. Some researchers say it will require our infrastructure to expand the grid.
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"It's going to have to be quite a lot larger," said David Victor with UC San Diego. "Maybe 20-30% larger just to meet that extra demand."
Infrastructure expansion and customer flexibility with charging time is one approach.
ABC10 spoke with SMUD's Chief Strategy Officer about another long-term solution, and he says EV charging could become a give-and-take system.
"There's technology coming along that's going to help those customers to not just use energy from the electric system, but also be able to put some of that back stored energy in their batteries, back into the electric system," said Scott Martin, SMUD Chief Strategy Officer. "That's called vehicle-to-grid technology."
For now, industry leaders say battery-powered DC fast-charging stations are the best bet because they don't pull from the grid. The California legislature has made it a goal to have 10,000 DC fast charging stations across the state by 2025.
