Tim Carter: Laconia does not have the means to support the rise in electric vehicle usage

To The Daily Sun,

How would you feel if your electricity was given to someone else? Brownouts and blackouts are looming on the horizon for homes and businesses in Laconia and central New Hampshire. It's all because of electric vehicles. Do you know how much electricity charging one of these cars sucks from the grid? It will astonish you.

The typical Tesla or Ford Lightning pickup truck might be at a high-speed charging station for about an hour. It's not unusual for the vehicle to pull from the grid about 137 kWh of electricity to recharge the battery.

Do you know how much the average house in Laconia consumes in that same hour? Check your utility bill and you'll discover about 1.5 kWh. That means charging one EV for one hour consumes the same amount of electricity that 91 houses use in that same hour. If 100 EVs pull up to the charging stations in and around Laconia and plug in, they suck the electricity that should be going to 9,100 houses.

What happens in a few years when 1,000 EVs driven by tourists and locals are charging at the same time? They'll suck from the grid the power that was supposed to go to 91,000 houses. The population of the state of NH is just under 1.4 million people. The current grid and power lines can't handle this load. That means your smart meter is going to turn off your electricity when too many EVs plug in. Are ten new power plants being built here in NH soon? The answer is no. You better be buying a generator. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Tim Carter

Meredith