Britain is beginning to look at its growing fleet of electric cars as both a way to create jobs and balance the power grid, moving transport to the centre of the fight against greenhouse gas emissions.
While EVs first gained credibility as a way to remove pollution from city centres, policymakers are starting to embrace other consequences of putting so many of them on the road. In addition to creating employment for those who build and service charging networks, the cars could help moderate swings in power supply and demand if their owners plug into the grid when not driving.
Getting the network ready for millions of electric vehicles by 2030 “is achievable” said Alistair Phillips-Davies, CEO of SSE. “There is huge capability across the network to go and deliver assets of the nature, it’ll create more jobs.” A further boost for employment will come from government support for battery “gigafactories” that make the power packs that drive EVs. Johnson’s administration committed £1bn pounds for supply chains that help EVs spread, saying a single gigafactory could employ 2,000 highly skilled people.
One issue is how to keep the system balanced as the rising use of renewables makes the flows into the grid more variable. Regulator Ofgem is set to approve as much as £35bn worth of projects planned for the five years to 2026. The network companies say this isn’t enough and they’ll need more to achieve what’s being asked of them by government.