As Ministers take electric vehicles evidence, GMB called on Government and National Grid to plan and invest in major infrastructure upgrading and development to ensure Britain is ahead of demand.
The GMB energy union urged Government and the National Grid to develop a plan to power the rise in electric vehicles.
According to one National Grid forecast there will be up to 35 million pure electric vehicles on the roads by 2050, with sales of new petrol and diesel cars halted by Government 2040 and this will put an incredible strain on the grid network.
That scenario sees peak demand from electric vehicles rising by 30 gigawatts — the equivalent of 10 new Hinkley Point power stations — adding to a current peak demand of 61GW.
Meanwhile in a recent report entitled ‘The Future of Gas: How gas can support a low carbon future’, the grid says that gas will be fundamental to any realistic future energy scenario and that it is not feasible to switch over to electric heating on the scale required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80 per cent of 1990 levels by the middle of this century.
Calling for the investment in grid power creation, Justin Bowden, GMB National Secretary, said, “With the government committing to ban sales of new petrol and diesel engine cars by 2040, the number of electric cars on our roads is set to rocket to anything up to 35 million, necessitating massive changes to network supply and charging point access.
“National Grid is forecasting up to 30 gigawatts of additional electricity capacity being needed by 2050 to meet peak demand. Our current capacity is 61 gigawatts.”
Electric company SSE last week said it wanted to hear from groups and consumers about how they anticipated demand rising so it can best plan for the future growth, but it also wants Gov. investment to kick-start projects for society.