The Tennessee Valley Authority is joining 52 other electric utilities across the nation to boost the number of fast-charging ports for electric cars by more than tenfold within the next decade to help power the expected surge in electric vehicles on American roads.
U.S. utilities, which have already invested more than than $3 billion in customer projects and programs to recharge battery-powered cars and trucks, are preparing to spend far more to install rapid recharging stations along all of America’s major highways in the next couple of years and to work to facilitate the addition of millions of more charging stations at homes and businesses across the country. The Edison Electric Institute estimates more than 100,000 EV fast-charging ports will be needed to support the projected 22 million electric vehicles that will be on U.S. roads in 2030.
“Our member companies are leading the clean energy transformation, and electric transportation is key to reducing carbon emissions across our economy,” Edison Electric President Tom Kuhn said in an announcement of the new initiative. “With the formation of the National Electric Highway Coalition, we are committed to investing in and providing the charging infrastructure necessary to facilitate electric vehicle growth and to helping alleviate any remaining customer range anxiety.”
The announcement this week of the new national EV recharging project comes 10 months after TVA and local power companies such as Chattanooga’s EPB joined with the Tennessee Department of Transportation to announce a $20 million initiative to install rapid chargers every 50 miles along Tennessee’s highways and major thoroughfares. TVA spokesperson Scott Fiedler said, so far, 95 of TVA’s 153 local power companies have expressed interest in partnering with TVA to develop the EV Fast Charge Network.
“We anticipate the first charger site will be online and operational in January,” Fiedler said.