Switching to electric home appliances and cars can reduce pollution and help you save money over time. But all of that new electricity demand could strain the power grid — leading to blackouts or the need for expensive power lines and other infrastructure.
A study by Purdue University looked into strategies that can help. Kevin Kircher is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue. He said if we don’t address the energy demand from electrification now, it could limit how many people go electric in the future.
“Utilities build more and more power lines and transformers — and that costs a lot of money — and they pass those costs on to ratepayers. And then that basically reduces the incentive, the economic case for continuing to electrify because electricity gets more expensive," Kircher said.
Kircher said a lot of that extra energy demand comes from heating homes — especially in colder parts of the country like the Midwest. Homeowners looking to switch to electric heating can help lower demand by buying a more efficient geothermal heat pump, instead of an air-source heat pump.
“Rather than absorbing energy from the outdoor air, it absorbs energy from the ground. So if you go down even maybe 10 feet underground, you find that the temperatures are much more stable and much higher, even in the middle of winter, than they are in the outdoor air," Kircher said.
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Indiana residents can apply for money from the state to help make their homes more energy efficient through Indiana's home energy rebate program.
Cities could also build more multi-family homes — like apartments and townhouses — that don’t take as much energy to heat.
Coordinating appliances to run at times when the electricity demand is lower can also help. For residents, that might look like waiting to do laundry until later in the evening or scheduling their electric vehicles to charge overnight.
Electric utilities could install software to better coordinate when their customers charge EVs or pre-heat their homes — offering incentives for people who participate in the program.
Kircher said right now there isn't much incentive for utilities to make energy efficiency improvements.
"Utilities make money, contrary to popular belief, not primarily by selling energy but actually by building infrastructure," he said. "So if utility spends a million dollars putting in new transformers and power lines, then they're able to take essentially $100,000 of additional profit every year for many years to come. So their kind of inherent incentive is to build stuff and energy efficiency really flies in the face of that incentive."
Kircher said that's why it's important for the public to get involved with their utility and utility regulators like the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.
READ MORE: How to know what your utility is up to and get involved
The state recently opened up applications for three seats on the IURC. The governor appoints those positions. Citizens Action Coalition has said the candidate interviews with the IURC nominating committee have been made public in the past.
Rebecca is our energy and environment reporter. Contact her at rthiele@iu.edu or on Signal at IPBenvironment.01. Follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.