Truck-charging depots that need more power are installing solar, batteries, and fossil-gas generators. Could these types of microgrids serve the grid at large?
Electric truck-charging sites across California face a choice: Wait years to get the grid power they need, or build their own solar, battery, or fossil-gas-powered microgrids.
Over the past few years, many of the state’s biggest truck-charging depots have chosen the build-your-own-power option.
These depots still need grid electricity, but now as a complement to their on-site power. The idea is to craft the fastest, cheapest, and cleanest combination to best meet the state’s decarbonization goals.
Striking that balance is hard. Historically, would-be “large-load” power customers like EV truck depots approach utilities with an all-or-nothing proposition — give us all the grid power we need, or we’ll build somewhere else. Utilities in turn are traditionally required to either make sure that their grids can serve these big new customers or deny their requests to interconnect. And both parties face complications when an on-site microgrid enters the equation. If the customers’ microgrid doesn’t perform as promised, for example, that might cause grid reliability risks for everyone else.
But as California’s utilities struggle to meet fast-growing demand for charging capacity to support the state’s aggressive clean-trucks mandates, pressure is growing to find solutions. State regulators are working on policies to speed up grid buildouts, but the trucking and charging industries fear that this regulatory push won’t move quickly enough to meet their short-term needs.
