TVA Partnership to Increase Electric Charging Station in Tennessee Valley

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- More people in our area are adopting electric vehicles.

However, it can be a challenge to charge on the go.

Blink is a company that specializes in creating electric chargers.

A partnership with TVA has them believing they can electrify our region’s roadways.

Blink’s goal is to place an electric charger at least every 50 miles in T-V-A’s service area.

Jim Nemec, the Vice President for Sales and Marketing at Blink, said, “There needs to be a tight partnership with utilities, because you can only scale charging as fast as the utility and the grid allows, it is actually a great partnership because there is always a fear of “can the grid handle this? Can the grid handle all of these chargers we are going to add to it?””

As for the grid now, Dave Graham, the President of Drive Electric Scenic City, said, “In Tennessee we’re behind. Georgia is ahead of us, Florida is way ahead of us. We’re probably in terms of power, right in front of Alabama and Mississippi.”

For Drive Electric Scenic City and its President Dave Graham, they want to see 200,000 electric vehicles on Tennessee roadways by the end of the decade.

As of now, there are 45,000, up from 30,000 last year.

While Graham says he loves his Volkswagen I-D-4, there are challenges when it comes to long haul trips.

Graham said, “If I go on a longer trip, I need to plan ahead to find where those D-C fast chargers are.”

Electric vehicle charging stations have been increasing in number across Chattanooga.

However, the goal is not just to increase those numbers inside the cities, but in destinations in between.

Nemec said, “We still want that freedom, we still want the ability to say, “Guess what? I want to jump in the car and head to Atlanta today. Or I want to take to New York City, I want to take the family.”

Graham says that if you jump into the electric vehicle market, it is important to note that obtaining electricity for your car varies from getting gas in one significant area.

He said, “What a lot of people are going to find out is that 80 to 90 percent of your charging is done at home. You don’t need a fast charger. You can charge if you have a level two charger, 240 volts you can install in your garage. It’s about a thousand dollars or less than that to install it.”

Blink says they have ordered their first batch of electric charging stations and plan to begin installation in the coming weeks.

Their contract with TVA lasts for two years.

Drive Electric Scenic City will be hosting their annual Scenic City Electric Festival on September 30th at Chattanooga State.