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Coming Soon – The Electric City

Revenge of the Electric Car

And at the headquarters of Pacific Gas and Electric, utility executives are preparing “heat maps” of neighborhoods that they fear may overload the power grid in their exuberance for electric cars.&#. If you just allow willy-nilly random charging, are we going to have neighborhood blackouts?” asked Mr. Tang, the utility executive.

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Smart Meters and Electric Cars

Revenge of the Electric Car

But increased use of electric vehicles could lead to everyone plugging in at the same time, peaking demand and complicating things, particularly if electric vehicles take hold of entire neighborhoods, as car trends often do, Kjaer explained. So instead, Edison and auto manufacturers are turning to “smart metering&# technologies.