The rise of the electric vehicle is creating an urgent need for the auto and power industries to develop a closer relationship — or face the risk that the disconnect between cars and the electric grid will cause rolling blackouts, writes David Ferris. Automakers and utilities “are going to have to interact in ways they hadn’t before, in ways that aren’t comfortable,” John Taggart, co-founder of the charging software company WeaveGrid, told David. While the Biden administration has created an office to foster collaboration between the Energy and Transportation departments, electric vehicles are speeding out of factories and onto roads before some crucial kinks are worked out, David writes. Those largely include technical issues that could arise when millions of vehicles begin seeking power from the grid at different times of day and in a multitude of locations. For example, Ryan Quint, an authority on the U.S. electric power supply, told David that some electric vehicles include a programming bug that could cause electric vehicles to consume power erratically, destabilizing the grid. The results could one day include catastrophic blackouts, said Quint, a senior official at the North American Electric Reliability Corp., which oversees the reliability of the U.S. power grid. Quint helped author a NERC report in April that warned that as EV adoption increases, the grid may experience sky-high electricity demand, need “expensive, last-minute upgrades” to accommodate chargers, and could suffer from unplanned blackouts. Even worse, Quint said he can’t find anyone at the world’s largest auto manufacturers to speak with about the problem. Automakers and oil and gas producers have a long-standing relationship, but official lines of communication between auto giants and their new fuel providers — electric utilities — are lacking. Forums where an auto engineer can sit down with a utility engineer are few, David writes. Some joint ventures are underway, such as one called the EV Charging Initiative, which brings together the auto sector, utilities, environmental groups and government officials. Other forums are getting off the ground, including one announced last month between BMW and the utility Pacific Gas and Electric Co. The bug that Quint identified is unlikely to manifest itself until millions of electric cars and trucks draw on the grid for power, but he said now is the time to deal with the issue. “Can we get out in front of this thing early, before all these cars are out there doing things we don’t want them to do?” Quint asked.
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