"EVs could cause Israel's electric grid to collapse"

Tadiran Group (TASE: TDRN) unit Aviem Tensor CEO Ran Abudi has warned that Israel's electricity grid could collapse under the weight of the charging needs for electric vehicles (EV), if proper regulation is not put in place.

Abudi told the Kenese Group's Israel Energy and Business Conference, "The rapid entry of electric vehicles - the rate of entry has doubled itself in the past year alone - will bring us to a situation in which there won’t be the electricity supply to allow charging of all the electricity vehicles in the country. In order for it not to happen at the last minute in this way, it is important to remove the obstacles ahead of time and prepare for the situation. Today proper regulations do not exist in the field and people are installing charging points, without taking into account the supply situation in the building, and in the future this will result in a situation in which the electricity grid will collapse and in more extreme cases, human life will be endangered."

Israel has set a target for 2030, in which 30% of the electricity in Israel will be produced from renewable energy, with an intermediary target of 20% by 2025. However, as time passes, the various players in the electricity grid understand that progress has not been sufficient and regulatory arrangements must be introduced more quickly. Kenes Group’s Israel Energy and Business Conference discussed the opportunities and the solutions in the field.

In terms of the use of renewable energy systems for producing electricity and expanding the electricity grid, Israel still lags behind, especially when compared with the countries of Western Europe. As part of a panel that discussed the issue of energy storage at the Israel Energy and Business Conference, experts spoke about the options and the solutions offered by the storage market.

Abudi said, "There is today a delay in consignments of storage systems that come from China and this slows down the pace of the supply chain and prevents the market from advancing. We at Tadiran ship about 10,000 containers each year and that allows us to bring equipment to Israel in the quickest way and to provide our customers with the equipment within the required time. In addition, the engineering design that we implement for storage systems significantly saves in costs for new and existing developers in the electricity grid market and this allows them, unlike in the past, to strive to close as many deals as possible.

"We find ourselves in a situation in which developers are able to produce hundreds of megawatts of electricity but they still don’t get approval to implement some of them. The regulator must expedite the factors that are slowing things down, in order to help developers lead the installation of solar energy storage systems."

Abudi also spoke about the importance of expanding the electricity grid and supply due to the entry into Israel of thousands of electric vehicles. He said, "Today there is not a sufficient infrastructure for charging electric vehicles. Without the regulator introducing proper standards, the electricity grid ill grind to a halt and we will have a significant shortfall in electricity. After the first and second set of regulations, we must begin to think about the future.

"Due to this situation, it is important to install storage systems that will allow the increase in supply of the existing electricity grid, or to manage the charging of electric vehicles in a smart way so that the electricity supply that each car will require can be reduced. I call on the regulator to arrange the issue, to set standards, to remove obstacles and to work in the fastest way so that we won’t reach such a critical situation. We have now reached a point in which it is very important to manage the electricity grid in the smartest possible way, in order to prevent damage to the future quality of life of all of us."

Tadiran Group has attached major importance to the topic of renewable energy by establishing a division in the sector, which includes Aviem Tensor, Tadiran Solar, VP Solar Italy, and EVM for managing the electric charging of cars, as part of its vision to allow a better living environment, through renewable energy, a more comfortable climate, and healthy air.