With no end in sight to electric vehicle boom, Austin Energy embraces the transportation sector

As new battery-powered car models from General Motors and Ford roll into the market, Austin Energy is racing to ensure the city’s infrastructure is ready for them.

The utility’s electric vehicle and emerging technologies team stopped by last week’s work session to bring City Council up to speed on pending improvements to its charging network and service programs. Executives Richard Genece and Cameron Freberg said electric vehicle drivers can look forward to an increasingly efficient, affordable and reliable charging experience.

“In the history of this program, the first 10 years we were focused on growth,” said Genece. “We want the next 10 years to be focused on reliability and performance.”

As an increasing number of consumers, corporations and administrations pivot to ditching gasoline, Austin has become a hotbed for the booming industry, exceeding both the national and state averages for electric vehicle registrations. In 2022, EVs constituted 11 percent of the city’s vehicle registrations, compared to 5 percent in Texas and 9 percent nationwide.

The trend has launched Austin Energy into a pivotal role in the transportation sector, making it the steward of a vast new infrastructure to power the growing electric fleet. The utility currently oversees a network of 1,542 public charging stations, 81 percent of which are privately owned and managed by investors like ChargePoint, Tesla and EVgo. Still, Freberg said there are kinks to be ironed out, with plans to begin a preventive maintenance schedule program this month.

“It’s an industrywide known issue that charging infrastructure has experienced severe outages over the last 10 years,” said Freberg. “In January of 2023, we were looking at 28 percent outage rates in our network, but since then have reduced that to 17 percent through replacing legacy hardware, performing regular maintenance and working with our maintenance contractors to make repairs.”

Austin Energy also hopes to increase the availability of DC fast chargers, which currently constitute only 30 of its 1,542 charging stations. DC chargers can provide a full charge in 15 to 45 minutes, in contrast to the several hours it takes Level 2 chargers, the most common currently offered in the market.

Austin Energy is also exploring new grid integration technology, with plans to launch a smart-home charging program that leverages real-time data to strategically time vehicle charging to manage overall grid load. Staff said the move toward more flexible grid-to-vehicle and even vehicle-to-grid exchanges can provide cost-saving efficiencies and greater reliability during peak demand, both for customers and for the utility.

Lastly, Austin Energy is continuing to support electrification of the city’s fleet, which currently boasts 275 battery-powered vehicles projected to provide $3.5 million in savings over the next decade. As the supply of needed models catches up with demand, the utility is working with the city’s Development Services Department to codify an expedited charging station permit. Partnerships with the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Austin Independent School District are also in the works as electric city and school buses come down the pipeline.

“I think the game changer with EVs, and the important aspect for us on the dais, is the fact that we’re converting from fuel-powered engines to clean engines,” said Council Member Leslie Pool. “But if it’s hard to get to those chargers, then that transformation will lag in time. … I’m hoping that in five to 10 years, fast chargers will be ubiquitous the same way that gas pumps are, and the gas pumps will eventually be something we’re nostalgic about.”

Photo by Ken Fields, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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