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Here's What EVs Are Doing to California's Energy Grid
David Shultz
David Shultz reports on clean technology and electric vehicles, among other industries, for dot.LA. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside, Nautilus and many other publications.
If you’ve been outside lately in Southern California, you’ll know there’s an ongoing heatwave here. In something of an annual tradition, the electricity grid is under duress because of the heightened demand for power-hungry air conditioners.
In response, the California Independent Systems Operator, which oversees the state’s electric grid, has issued “flex alerts,” which are essentially pleas to residents to conserve power during peak usage (4 p.m. to 9 p.m.) by turning off appliances, air conditioning, setting thermostats to 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and refraining from charging electric vehicles.
This last item–don’t charge your EVs–has drawn some schadenfreude from some news outlets which point out that, just last week, the state announced plans to ban new gas car sales. How can California possibly hope to power a fleet of around 20 million electric vehicles in the future when it can hardly power around 1 million cars today?
Whether or not it’s being asked in good faith, it’s a valid question. So here’s an explainer about what exactly is going on with the grid and the role that EVs will likely play in the future.
The problem is that it’s too hot right now. As always, no one can claim that climate change caused this heatwave, but the overwhelming majority of scientists agree that human-caused climate change is making heatwaves like this one more common. The future will certainly have more such heat events than the present, especially if we don’t find a way to reduce or eliminate carbon emissions.
When it’s too hot, people use a lot more air conditioning. Air conditioning is especially energy-intensive. The result is that–all at once–there’s more demand for electricity. When demand outstrips supply, blackouts occur.
“People think of ‘the grid’ as this uniform system. But really, it's a bunch of electrical connections that have evolved over time,” says Cascade Tuholske, an assistant professor of Human-Environment Geography at Montana State University. “Some aspects of the grid are super antiquated. And you can't just pump more electricity into a system without upgrading it.”
You can imagine the electrical grid sort of like plumbing. Like water in pipes of different diameters, there’s a maximum amount of electronics that can flow through different grid architectures, so simply adding more energy into the system doesn’t necessarily solve the problem.
The California electric grid, in other words, has failed to keep pace with the increasing demand for air conditioning. Or, as California Gov. Newsom put it in a press conference yesterday, “All of us have been trying to outrun Mother Nature, but it’s pretty clear Mother Nature has outrun us.”
Even without the increased demand from electric vehicles, the grid needs upgrades. But EVs–even a whole state’s worth–don’t add as much demand to the grid as fossil fuel advocates might suggest. The main reason EVs aren’t likely to cripple the grid is that they don’t all charge at the same time and they don't usually charge when demand is high. Like with smartphones, most EV charging happens overnight, while the car sits in the garage, while people aren’t awake to use appliances, while demand for air conditioning is lowest.
Nationally, EV charging accounts for just .2% of energy grid consumption, by some estimates. Adding a nation of EVs will absolutely add demand for electricity to the grid–as much as 25% more, according to scientists–but this transition is going to happen slowly, over time. Even California, which has the most ambitious EV adoption policy, is allowing 13 years before banning gas-powered car sales. It will probably be 30 years or more before 90% of the cars on the road are electric. The demand for more power will ramp up slowly, just as it has historically as Americans bought refrigerators, air conditioners, computers, etc.
President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act includes massive amounts of funding to address these exact issues, including $2.5 billion to “modernize and expand capacity of America’s power grid.”
Ironically, EVs actually may offer help to a stressed electrical grid if they’re used correctly. Cars with full batteries can be plugged in and used to supply energy to the grid – just as they did a month ago when Tesla pooled energy from its users’ vehicles to boost California’s supply. Of course this will drain your car’s battery, but you should be able to get paid for your troubles. A 50kWh battery like what’s found in an electric vehicle is more than enough to power the average house for a day.
“At least in theory, if they're integrated into the grid, you can draw the power off your EV battery during periods of excess demand,” says Tuholske.
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David Shultz
David Shultz reports on clean technology and electric vehicles, among other industries, for dot.LA. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside, Nautilus and many other publications.
AirMap Will Help The FAA Design Its New Drone Tracking System
04:43 PM | May 06, 2020
Santa Monica-based drone operations company AirMap is among eight companies selected to help the Federal Aviation Administration establish technical requirements for Remote ID, a protocol that drones will be required to follow for broadcasting identification and location data while in flight.
The other companies include Airbus, Amazon, T-Mobile, Intel, OneSky, Skyward and Alphabet's drone subsidiary, Wing.
"The FAA will be able to advance the safe integration of drones into our nation's airspace from these technology companies' knowledge and expertise on remote identification," Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said today in a news release.
Today's announcement comes months after the FAA put out a set of draft regulations and a request for information relating to Remote ID.
Remote ID would require drone manufacturers to make their products capable of sending out ID codes and location data during operation in national airspace. The rules would apply to all drones heavier than 8.8 ounces, and manufacturers would have to comply two years after the regulations take effect. Drone operators would have three years to phase out non-complying devices.
Drones without the Remote ID system could be flown only within special FAA-designated zones — usually the same sorts of places where hobbyists fly model airplanes.
Remote ID system proposed for drones in U.S. airspacewww.youtube.com
The eight companies named today will advise the FAA on the technical standards and radio frequencies that would support the Remote ID system. Those specifications will be announced when the FAA publishes its final rule on Remote ID. Then the FAA would begin accepting applications for entities to become Remote ID suppliers.
Assuming the process develops as the FAA envisions, Remote ID would become a fact of life for drone operation — and for enforcement of the rules governing drone operation. Nearly 1.5 million drones and 160,000 remote pilots are now registered with the FAA, and analysts say Remote ID could turn into a market generating $1.5 billion a year by 2029.
Seattle-based Amazon and Wing are already well-known for their work on drones designed for package delivery. Airbus has its own delivery-drone program known as Skyways. Intel, meanwhile, has been building drones optimized for remote monitoring. Several FAA-approved pilot projects are testing Intel's drones as well as Intel's Bluetooth-enabled identification system, known as Open Drone ID.
AirMap, OneSky (a business unit of Analytical Graphics Inc.) and Skyward (a Verizon subsidiary) are working on traffic management systems that are optimized to keep track of drone operations.
T-Mobile has been providing the connectivity for at least three pilot projects involving drones, and is looking to expand its involvement in the drone industry with the rise of 5G networks.
Not everyone is happy with the FAA's proposed plan for Remote ID: DJI, one of the world's largest drone manufacturers, sounded off about its objections in a January blog posting.
"DJI wants governments to require Remote ID for drones, but the FAA has proposed a complex, expensive and intrusive system that would make it harder to use drones in America, and that jeopardizes the success of the Remote ID initiative," said Brendan Schulman, DJI's vice president of policy and legal affairs. "Instead, we support a simpler, easier, and free version of Remote ID that doesn't need a cellular connection or a service subscription."
Will the FAA's new technology partners come up with a different plan, or stick with the system as proposed? Stay tuned.
This story first appeared on GeekWire.
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Alan Boyle, GeekWire
GeekWire contributing editor Alan Boyle is an award-winning science writer and veteran space reporter. Formerly of NBCNews.com, he is the author of "The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made a Big Difference." Follow him via CosmicLog.com, on Twitter @b0yle, and on Facebook and MeWe.
Tinder, Starlink, and Apple’s New Studio: This Week in LA
10:27 AM | July 04, 2025
🔦 Spotlight
Happy Independence Day, Los Angeles! 🇺🇸
While you're celebrating freedom, here are some electrifying updates lighting up LA’s tech, satellite, and music scenes:
🔥 Tinder mandates Face Recognition in California
Image Source: Tinder
Tinder is now requiring all new users in California to complete a biometric face check, a brief video selfie processed via FaceTec, to verify profiles are genuine. The video is deleted post-verification, though an encrypted face map remains while the account is active. This West Hollywood based move could redefine trust, safety, and privacy in mainstream consumer apps.
🌐 Starlink clears hurdle to launch in India
Elon Musk’s SpaceX backed Starlink has cleared most regulatory and licensing hurdles with India’s Department of Telecommunications, marking a key step toward launching satellite broadband in one of the world’s fastest growing markets. Final approvals from the national space regulator are pending, and services, expected to deliver high speed connectivity to underserved regions, could launch in the coming months. This is a major milestone for Starlink’s global expansion.
🎧 Apple Music opens Culver City creative hub
Image Source: Apple
Apple Music is celebrating its anniversary by launching a brand new 15,000 square foot, three story studio in Culver City. The facility, featuring a 4,000 square foot soundstage, spatial audio suites, podcast booths, and more, is designed by Eric Owen Moss and slated to open mid August. It solidifies LA’s reputation as a creative powerhouse and reaffirms Apple’s commitment to investing in and nurturing our city's cultural ecosystem.
From dating apps to deep space to sound stages, LA isn’t just watching the future unfold, we’re building it.
Here’s to independence, imagination, and everything this city dares to launch next. Happy Fourth, Los Angeles.
🤝 Venture Deals
LA Companies
- Castelion has raised a $350M Series B round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners alongside Altimeter Capital to scale its hypersonic missile production capabilities. The El Segundo-based defense startup plans to use the funds to expand manufacturing, accelerate testing through its SpaceX-inspired rapid development model, and position itself as a cost-effective supplier of hypersonic weapons to the U.S. military and its allies. - learn more
- Earth Sama, a Calabasas, California–based climate-tech platform that helps rural farming and Indigenous communities generate and manage carbon credits, secured investment from Omtse Ventures. The funding will support the rollout of Earth Sama’s blockchain-powered field app, climate-creator platform, and smart-contract tools to scale community-led carbon credit projects globally under the Paris Agreement’s Article 6.4 framework. - learn more
LA Venture Funds
- Plassa Capital participated in Metafide’s $3.275M funding round. Miami based Metafide, the creator of SURGE, a gamified trading platform that combines AI neural networks and human insight, will use the funds to scale and launch SURGE into the market. - learn more
- BOLD Capital Partners participated as a founding investor in Syntis Bio’s $33M Series A round, with an additional $5M in NIH grants. The Boston-based biotech is developing oral therapies for obesity and rare diseases, and the funding will help advance its SYNT platform, moving its lead obesity treatment, SYNT-101, into Phase 1 trials and supporting development of SYNT-202 for homocystinuria. - learn more
- BAM Ventures participated in Cred’s $15M seed round for its predictive intelligence startup. San Francisco based Cred uses AI to unify company data with real time market signals and deliver actionable insights for sales and operations. The funding, led by defy.vc, will be used to scale Cred’s platform, expand its customer base, and grow team and product capabilities. - learn more
- BOLD Capital Partners participated in Gallant’s $18M Series B round to advance its ready-to-use stem cell therapies for pets. The funding, led by Digitalis Ventures with additional support from NovaQuest Capital, will help Gallant bring its off-the-shelf regenerative treatments to market. - learn more
- Rebel Fund joined the seed round for Rocketable, contributing to the $6.5M raised to build a portfolio of fully automated SaaS companies. San Francisco-based Rocketable, backed by True Ventures and others, uses AI agents to operate acquired software products, and Rebel’s support will help scale both the platform and acquisitions. - learn more
LA Exits
- Leasepath, a cloud-first provider of equipment lease and loan management software, has been acquired by Solifi to enhance its mid-market offerings. The deal allows Solifi to expand Leasepath’s Microsoft Dynamics-based platform into new global markets while keeping Leasepath’s team and leadership in place. - learn more
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