Energy Gang · Wood Mackenzie

Electric vehicles create problems for the grid. Could they also help solve them? The plan to turn EVs into reliable grid infrastructure

January 6, 2026·54 min·4 clips

Apoorv Bargaba explains how a professor on the show sparked his lifelong passion for energy during his childhood in Cyprus.

The grid is short on capital. Load growth is pushing harder than money, resources, and human capital can comfortably keep up with, while affordability hangs over the whole conversation. The guest keeps coming back to adoption: even useful technology fails if people will not choose into it. Signals are the mechanism. Managed charging works because it can shift charging when the right incentives or instructions show up. Grid operators are still learning how to use that flexibility. Colorado gives the cleanest example, with excess wind in the middle of the night that could be matched by turning on thousands of cars. But the trick has a catch. If too many vehicles charge in one pocket, such as Boulder, the fix can create feeder problems on the distribution grid. So the answer is co-optimization. Charging needs to absorb surplus generation and avoid local constraints when demand bunches up. Data visibility becomes the hinge. The host presses on how WeaveGrid sees EV assets and whether drivers have to opt in. The guest says EVs are misunderstood, mostly because they are among the least visible assets already connected to the electric system. The scale is real: seven and a half million plug-in vehicles in the United States, about 40 gigawatts of nameplate capacity. That is more load than expected data center requirements over the next few years, yet most of the flexibility is still sitting unused.

As heard by us

A grounded look at EVs as both a grid problem and a flexible resource utilities are still learning how to use.

Energy Gang treats electric vehicles as a fast-growing test for the power grid, but also as a flexible resource that could help manage demand if utilities can see and shape charging behavior.

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Why you'd press play

If you want the grid story behind EV charging, start here.

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