Electric vehicle charging companies and some of California’s largest utilities have learned to compromise on an issue that’s critical to the clean trucking industry: reducing the time it takes to provide power to new charging stations.
Observers say the approach could set a template for other states to follow.
“There’s a tremendous amount of interest in, how do we bring on all this EV load growth fast and flexibly,” said Alex Collins, who has worked on the problem at Pacific Gas and Electric.
Heavy-duty truck charging requires huge amounts of electricity, and charging companies have complained that utility companies often take years to connect new charging stations to the grid. Utility companies have argued they can’t provide that much electricity without making expensive upgrades to their networks whose costs ultimately have to be passed on to ratepayers.
