October 1
EVs Are Finally Ready for Rural Drivers
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Member News
EVs have finally reached the inflection point that drivers who live in rural areas can plug into the all-electric cars and save serious money along the way. Rural areas have certainly been left behind in the installations of access to public EV charging stations. However, EV sales are picking up and national car manufacturers are making splashy headlines with their dedication to go electric. Rural drivers have a big incentive to go all-electric, too.
In an effort to increase EV adoption and, in turn, increase its viability, Georgia Power has launched the Make Ready Electric Transportation Program, which offers an avenue for businesses to apply for funding help with EV infrastructure. Under the program terms, Georgia Power will install, own and maintain any behind-the-meter infrastructure needed to support charging systems at applicable businesses, as well as manufacturing and corporate facilities.
Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) unveiled plans Monday at the utility’s annual investor day conference to spend up to $900 million on grid improvements, with a focus on boosting reliability and expanding electric vehicle infrastructure. The new projects will increase the New Jersey-based PSEG's overall capital spending plan for 2021-2025 by almost a billion dollars to the $14 billion to $16 billion range, up from $13 billion to $15 billion previously planned.
States with robust goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions risk incurring higher costs for households and businesses if they do not also focus on energy efficiency, a report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) found. The report said that most of the signature state climate policies, such as clean electricity standards and emissions reductions goals, have not articulated the important role of energy efficiency in decarbonizing state electric grids and economies.
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Industry News
As National Drive Electric Week shifts into gear, the nation’s electric companies are investing more than $3 billion in EV charging infrastructure and customer programs to accelerate transportation electrification and reduce carbon emissions. The 11th annual event that started Sept. 25 and runs through Oct. 3 features more than 200 electric vehicle events throughout the country designed to highlight the environmental, economic and customer benefits of electric transportation.
Ford Motor Company announced plans on Tuesday for a massive electric vehicle manufacturing campus in Tennessee, as well as two additional battery facilities in Kentucky, in what the company called the largest investment in the U.S. electric vehicle market at one time by an automaker. A $5.6 billion mega campus in Stanton, Tennessee — dubbed Blue Oval City — will build next-generation electric F-Series pickups and advanced batteries through a partnership with SK Innovation.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Thursday set new energy savings goals for the state's investor-owned electric and natural gas utilities, including a new tranche of savings potential to account for fuel substitution that clean energy advocates say will help advance the state's decarbonization efforts. The CPUC sets savings goals every two years based on a biennial Energy Efficiency Potential and Goals Study.
Midwest EV drivers will soon be able travel even farther with an expanding charging network. In 2020, Ameren announced a first-of-its-kind collaboration among energy companies that committed in good faith to building a large, collaborative network of EV charging stations. Now the momentum continues, as Alliant Energy signs the Memorandum of Cooperation to further extend the network.
