Will We Have Enough Juice to Get Us to an All-EV World by 2035? by Ed Attanasio
You don’t need to be a Californian to know electric vehicles (EVs) are coming whether we like them or not. In 2035, if you go to a new car dealership and mention gas, they will likely escort you off the lot. Well, maybe it won’t be that bad, but rest assured if you don’t own an electric car by 2035, your neighbors will talk. So, is there going to be enough juice in the box to make California―let alone the rest of the country―all-EV in the next 14 years? Recently, Autobody News interviewed Chuck Reynolds, the owner of Cyber Switching, Inc. in San Jose, CA. Cyber Switching’s power management solutions are targeted to small- and medium-sized commercial buildings. As a 40-year veteran of the electricity game, Reynolds was working on EV charging back when it was a novelty rather than the norm. He started his business in 1983 with a handful of electricians who shared
his vision of the future, including everyone driving an EV.
Q:
We’re going to need enough electricity to power an enormous fleet. Do we have it and if not, can we have it by 2035?
A:
We installed charging systems in Cisco Systems back in 1996 because several of their employees had EVs, but that was very obviously forward-thinking at the time.
A:
There shouldn’t be any technical or economic reason why the grid won’t support electrification. There is likely enough generation capacity out there right now, but it’s just not going to the right places. The biggest problem is going to be the infrastructure and getting the power to where it’s needed. A really good example is that in California now existing buildings, like condo developments and other multi-unit dwellings, can’t just say OK―we are going to install charging stations here, but the problem is they have limited power.
Q:
You can see the future of EV charging through some of your clients, so what have you learned?
Chuck Reynolds owns Cyber Switching, Inc., a power management company in Silicon Valley. He said there will be enough electricity out there to power all EVs by 2035, as long as it’s properly managed
When many of these buildings were built prior to 1995, for example, these weren’t designed to handle all of these additional loads. With some of our clients who are in buildings built in the early 2000s, they’re not prepared when people hook up their vehicles and start charging.
So, one of the biggest issues is infrastructure. When you come to work in the morning and you plug your vehicle into one of our charging stations, there are sometimes 20 to 30 people doing the same thing at the same time, with just as many waiting in line. Right now, people have to go out to their cars to take them off the charger, and that’s obviously not very efficient. Studies have shown that large companies are losing a lot of money while their employees have to stop what they’re doing so that they can move their EVs.
Q:
Will companies that are not prepared end up paying through the nose if they don’t manage their power?
A:
Well, that’s going to put a spike on the grid because everyone is plugging in at the same time and if there are others waiting, they will roll it over every two hours approximately. That’s going to put a strain on the grid and is a concern for whomever is providing that power.
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