DTE Energy's plan to keep electric vehicles powered up
(CBS DETROIT) - The interests for electric vehicles are up.
"So, the utilization is definitely increasing on these chargers, and this is just a great example of how you can have charging right downtown and enjoy your day downtown," said Kelsey Peterson, DTE manager of transportation electrification, while outside the port station at Beacon Park in Detroit.
DTE Energy is now elevating its efforts to sustain electric vehicles while preparing the power grid to handle it.
"We're building the grid of the future here at DTE for both economic development and electrification," Peterson said.
"We're investing over one billion a year, annually over the next five years to both increase capacity and improve reliability and that's going to help meet our customer's needs, including that shift to EVs."
Last month, President Joe Biden announced phase one of his plan to invest $7.5 billion to building a national infrastructure network for charging stations.
"When the inflation reduction Act passed, those extension of federal tax credits for electric vehicles had some new stipulations with them like domestic manufacturing and so that is now making the automakers reconsider you know bringing things here so that they can qualify, their vehicles can now qualify for the tax credits too," Peterson explained.
DTE currently has 1,000 public charging stations across Michigan, with plans to increase the number of ports as EV production expands.
With most EVs having over 300 miles of range on a single charge, utility officials say drivers can get through the day, perhaps even three or four days, without needing to plug in.
"For public charging, there's typically two kinds," Peterson said.
"There's level two chargers which can deliver about 10-20 miles of range an hour and then there's fast chargers like these over here. I think these are like 62 kilowatts, but they can go as high as 350 kilowatts."
Charging an EV overnight on a time-of-use electric rate is like paying less than a $1 for a gallon of gasoline.
Current EV owners can contact DTE for at-home charger installation and portal plans.