Infrastructure package opens door to next phase of EV expansion

The passage of the sprawling and long-awaited Biden infrastructure package is seen as a milestone in the impending electrification of the nation’s transportation sector, panelists said over the weekend at the COP26 climate summit in Scotland.

The wrangling in Congress over the $1.2 trillion spending plan came to an end and gave President Joe Biden his most concrete achievement in the campaign to curb climate change at a time when the COP26 conference was being dismissed in some quarters as too little and possibly too late. But while the conference itself lacked little in the way of headline drama, the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was seen as a major step in advancing the shift from gasoline and diesel fuel to clean electricity.

“It is one of the largest investments made in the world in transportation,” said Arshad Mansoor, president and CEO of the Electric Power Research Institute. “Our aspirations are now becoming ambitions.”

Mansoor was a panelist in a timely discussion at COP26 on moving the electrification of the transportation sector from the drawing board and pilot projects on to a widescale buildout of both the charging infrastructure that will accommodate the rising tide of electric vehicles (EV) in a country where about 80 percent of cars, trucks and other vehicles currently on the road burn gasoline or diesel. Both he and Pedro Pizarro, president and CEO of Edison International and vice chairman of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), agreed that the time had arrived to get more EVs on the roads and at the same time rebuild the power grid to provide EV charging on a wider basis.

“This is a great opportunity because the infrastructure has to be done and upgraded,” Mansoor said. “This bill will scale up and present a great opportunity to develop guides and strategies, and not just look to what we have done in the past. We have learned from that, but now it’s time for integration.”

The energy industry has made significant steps toward lowering its output of carbon dioxide (CO2) by getting behind wind and solar generation while phasing out coal and aiming for reductions in natural gas as well. Transportation has been more vexing due to consumer loyalty to internal combustion vehicles and some reasonable concerns about the range of EVs relative to finding a charging station in the middle of nowhere or even their neighborhood.

The infrastructure plan, however, raises new opportunities to expand EV charging in areas where there might not be many high-end Teslas or even Priuses on the road. Charging stations can be bundled into infrastructure grants that also feature standard roadway improvements and upgrades to mass transit. The Washington Post reported earlier this year on a project that the Los Angeles Department of Transportation will be seeking with a manageable $45 million in funding for the blue-collar South Los Angeles area. The project features new bike lanes, bus stops and crosswalks as well as 300 EV charging stations.

“Doing large-scale projects requires billions of dollars and now billions of dollars are available,” Mansoor said. “So, the work has to start now.”

Refining Renewables

The infrastructure plan will also provide additional resources for the continuing evolution of the decarbonized grid, which Pizarro and Mansoor agreed will need to include a healthy mix of various new-generation technologies to bolster wind and solar and ensure reliability around the clock. That will require developing generators that run on hydrogen or advanced nuclear power while also greatly expanding battery storage. In addition, carbon-capture technology could also make natural gas a cleaner option.

Pizarro’s Edison International announced this month it plans to add 535 megawatts (MW) of storage capacity and another 230 MW of third-party storage capacity at three substations. Storage capacity has carved out a potentially key role in the reliability of a decarbonized grid and it is now curtain time. “We need pilot programs, but there is also some sense that we are out of time for pilots.” Pizarro said. “We now need policies that will also support deployment through consumer adoption.”

Pizarro and Mansoor were both confident that the public will eventually fall in love with EVs as the sticker price comes down along with the costs and availability of charging. In fact, the selling point for the early generation of electric cars was their ability to bypass soaring gasoline prices, and that will hold true in the coming years as customers see their overall energy bills come down even though they be using more electricity.

Expanding charging so that every type of neighborhood, particularly underserved rural regions and urban neighborhoods, has easy access will eventually lead to a tipping point for EVs, and a spike in new infrastructure will make it happen sooner rather than later.

“This is the decade that we make a dent in the transportation sector,” Mansoor said. “But it is not going to happen unless we as a society make it a priority.”