Electrification and EVs

The Biden administration on Jan. 11 tapped 22 states and Puerto Rico to receive $623 million in grants to build electric vehicle charging and hydrogen fueling infrastructure.

The funding is a part of the federal government’s $7.5 billion push to build a national EV charging network. The grants from the Federal Highway Administration come through the $2.5 billion Charging and Fueling Infrastructure discretionary grant program. Another $5 billion is being distributed via formula grants through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program.

The two programs were included in the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed by President Biden in 2021. The administration wants half of all new passenger vehicle sales in the United States to be electric vehicles by 2030.

“America led the arrival of the automotive era, and now we have a chance to lead the world in the EV revolution,”  U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.

Despite a slowdown in growth last year, U.S. drivers are increasingly going electric. There were 1.2 million EVs sold in the U.S. last year, according to estimates by Cox Automotive, and the firm expects EV sales to surpass 10% of new U.S. auto sales in 2024.

There were 47 charging and alternative-fueling infrastructure projects announced Jan. 11, including construction of approximately 7,500 EV charging ports. The largest projects include:

• $56 million to develop an electric freight corridor in California’s San Joaquin Valley along I–5;
• $51 million for the development of alternative charging and fueling infrastructure along several highways in Puerto Rico;
• $70 million for up to five refueling stations as part of the the Texas Hydrogen and Electric Freight Infrastructure project; and
• $64 million for a clean fuel buildout project for medium- and heavy-duty electric corridors along Interstate 10 in New Mexico.

“This funding will help ensure that EV chargers are accessible, reliable, and convenient for American drivers, while creating jobs in charger manufacturing, installation, and maintenance for American workers,” Buttigieg said.

Other grants include $15 million to the Maryland Clean Energy Center to build 87 electric vehicle charging stations; $15 million to Energy Northwest in Washington State, to install 40 fast chargers and 12 Level 2 chargers across the western part of the state and in northern Oregon; and $1.4 million to the Chilkoot Indian Association in Alaska to build an EV charging station in the rural community of Haines.

The transformation of U.S. transportation to electric vehicles requires a massive deployment of fast chargers that is being slowed by a debate over whether utilities should own and operate charging facilities, analysts on both sides of the debate agree.

To grow today’s estimated 10% of new light duty zero emission vehicle sales to the national 2030 target of 50% will require a change “unprecedented in the history of the automotive industry,” a June 2023 National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL, study reported. Utilities and charging companies widely agree with NREL on the huge need for public charging but not on the key providers to meet it.

Utility investment can accelerate the deployment of fast chargers, especially if regulators allow cost recovery for proactive infrastructure development based on planning, many stakeholders do agree.

But utility cost recovery for charger capital costs means the rates of non-EV owners, including lower income customers, would subsidize higher income EV owners, said Electric Advisors Consulting Founder Frank Lacey, co-author of a May 2023 paper opposing utility charger ownership. “Those subsidies inhibit private sector investment by giving utilities competitive advantages over other charging providers,” he said.

New policy, funding and goals to support transportation electrification have, however, “changed the rules” on utility spending, making costs to grow charging acceptable to many stakeholders, responded Alliance for Transportation Electrification, or ATE, Executive Director Phil Jones, co-author of a June 2023 paper advocating for a bigger role for utilities’ in charger deployment. Investments in utility distribution systems have become necessary and pivotal “market enablers” in this transition, he added.

Fast charger deployment must match charger usage to protect the financial viability of investments in charging infrastructure, which will require policy reforms, including proactive utility planning and procurement practices, many stakeholders said. But whether utility ownership and operation of chargers is necessary to meet the coming need remains in dispute, advocates for and against utility ownership agreed.    

Costs covered, debates growing

The cumulative cost for the 182,000 publicly accessible direct current fast charger, or DCFC, ports to support the forecast of 33 million EVs in 2030 will be $27 billion to $44 billion, NREL estimated.

Capital commitments from private investors, governments and utilities in the U.S. are over $20 billion, a May 2023 Atlas Public Policy report found. And the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and 2021’s bipartisan infrastructure law offer “significant” further support.

But continuing policy battles, like the question of the utility role, “are not doing much good for customers, reliability, or affordability,” said Cisco DeVries, CEO of distributed energy resources aggregator OhmConnect.

Some recent state policy developments have enabled utility ownership of charging facilities, but more often [they] have limited utilities to owning infrastructure up to the charger, or to ownership only for underserved customers, North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center Associate Director, Policy and Markets, Autumn Proudlove reported from the Center’s Q1 2023 EV policy update.

Similarly, legislators and regulators have followed legitimate arguments for limiting and for not limiting utility charging facility ownership.

A private market?

“Customers need conveniently deployed and readily available public DCFC stations,” said Lacey, whose May 2023 paper was funded by the National Association of Convenience Stores. But competitive advantages from leveraging recovery of chargers’ capital costs through rates could allow utilities to build charging facilities at easier to develop but less highly trafficked locations convenient for drivers, he said.

Convenience store owners want to invest in charging stations, Lacey said. But competing with “subsidized utilities” could inhibit investment and slow the urgently needed scaling of public charging, he added.

Limiting the utility role in charging facility ownership protects utility customers from the “costs for charger O&M that can be done better by charger providers,” Lacey said.

Utilities could, however, support charger providers by designing new EV charging rates that limit the impacts of demand charges, “while charger utilization is too low to significantly threaten demand peaks,” he added.

Demand charge reform is needed, agreed Justin Wilson, senior director, utility partnerships and regulatory affairs, for charging station hardware and software provider ChargePoint.

Identifying and implementing new demand charges has already created common ground for utilities and charger providers. Utah’s Rocky Mountain Power, or RMP, and Arizona Public Service, or APS, whose regulators approved them owning public charging, are implementing new demand charge rate designs, both utilities said.

But EV charging “should ultimately be done by the private competitive market” in a future with the majority of parking spaces offering fast charging, ChargePoint’s Wilson objected.

“The utility’s best role is doing interconnections as quickly as possible and deploying distribution system infrastructure up to the make-ready,” Wilson added. A make-ready is the utility-built hardware needed to interconnect a charger.

“The private market excels at deploying capital to expedite charging station installation,” Wilson added. But interconnections are a significant roadblock tying up capital and regulators should require utilities to expedite infrastructure upgrades and streamline interconnection for technologies like EV chargers that are prioritized by policymakers, he added.

In addition, regulators can accelerate electrification by approving utility cost recovery for proactive procurement of system infrastructure to meet anticipated utility planning needs, Wilson said.

As the debate over ownership of EV charging stations continues, utilities are not waiting to act.

Utilities in control

Despite opposition from some charger providers, utilities like RMP and APS are moving into charger ownership in partnership with one of the U.S.’s biggest private charger providers, which some stakeholders see as potential common ground.

An earlier program allowed public charging site owners to choose the charger and O&M provider but RMP studies found “a pattern of poor maintenance by private providers leading to bad consumer charging experiences,” said RMP Director of Innovation and Sustainability Policy James Campbell. Utah’s new RMP-backed H.B.107 allows the utility to own, obtain cost recovery, operate and oversee O&M for DCFCs, he said.

Electrify America subsidiary Electrify Commercial was chosen to deploy the RMP-owned and labeled DCFCs because of its next generation technologies and proven ability to meet high O&M standards, Campbell added. APS also chose Electrify Commercial to bring a smaller but similar public DCFC program online in January for similar reasons, said APS Energy Innovation Program Consultant Tony Perez.

Putting the utility’s brand on chargers makes it imperative for it to protect system reliability, Campbell said. Non-utility charging facility owners focus primarily on ways “to maximize profit,” but system planning allows utilities the visibility to deploy efficiently and manage charging loads “for the system’s benefit,” he added.

Electrify America’s ownership and operation of over 850 DCFC stations with about 4,000 ports on highways and at urban, suburban and rural commercial sites produced a key insight, said Senior Manager, Commercial Networks and Fleets, Aaron Young. The realization that “utilities want to own charging but need expertise or scale to do it cost-effectively led to Electrify Commercial,” he said.

It is vital to eliminate utility concerns about O&M service, reliability, and the customer experience because “there is still nowhere near enough U.S. investment” in DCFC deployment, Young said. Electrify America can take care of that on behalf of utilities, and other charger providers are exploring the opportunity, he added.

“California’s Public Utilities Commission ruling to proactively build EV charging infrastructure could make sense in other states.” said Young

There are other reasons utility ownership can benefit EV charging facility deployment, advocates for utilities said.

A “unique” feature of utility investment is “patient capital” that can be invested with a longer-term view, said Edison Electric Institute Director, Electric Transportation, Kellen Schefter. It can fill “gaps” where third parties see no value proposition, he added.

And utilities are “accountable under formal regulatory oversight,” Schefter said. Their “track record” of meeting regulatory standards for identifying and addressing reliability challenges is “a skillset that will carry over to EV charging infrastructure,” he added.

Despite their differences, utilities and charger providers are successfully collaborating in states where regulation requires it.

Better together?

As the need for fast charging deployment becomes more evident, many utilities and private charger builders are finding that working together is the way to meet the challenge.

Like RMP and APS but without direct utility control, Ford and “leading charging providers” are developing its BlueOval Charge Network, a "network of networks" that includes about 1,800 DCFCs, said Ford Director, Electric Vehicle and BlueOval City Communications, Emma Bergg. 

Austin Energy, a municipal utility, recognized in 2011 that “having chargers without vehicles is annoying, but having vehicles without chargers is far worse,” said Austin Energy’s Strategist for Electric Vehicles & Emerging Technologies Cameron Freberg.

“Public charging is becoming an expected amenity,” Freberg said. But “the best dollars spent by the utility are on the make-readies because they are long-term assets,” which is why Austin Energy has shifted its early charging ownership strategy to building make-readies for private charger providers who commit to its “station host agreement,” and allow monitoring of O&M performance to ensure reliable charging, he added.

Utility customers who drive EVs are shifting from an “if you build it they will come” attitude to a we “will go where the charging is available” attitude, Freberg continued. They will be dissatisfied with utilities that don’t support charger deployment in whatever form serves them best, he added.

That demand by drivers for more and better charging is why “all utility options to deploy charging facilities, including building make-readies and owning and operating chargers with or without a charger provider partner should be decided by state regulators,” added ATE’s Jones, a former Washington state utilities commissioner.

Utility grid modernization capital expenditures for grid modernization or building make-readies may be the best approach in regulated utility markets if private charger provider investment is adequate, Jones acknowledged. Most utilities want investments in distribution system situational awareness to safely integrate rising levels of EV fast charging but may “prefer to avoid the time and cost for charger O&M,” he added.

Southern California Edison, or SCE, is an example of that approach. It “primarily builds make-readies rather than competing with charger owner-operators, said SCE Director of Electrification Chanel Parson. But it still takes steps to protect the customer experience, she added.

SCE’s practices show how stakeholders with different business models are moving toward the same target of reliable charging. To plug into SCE make-readies, charger owners contractually agree to keep every port operational for 10 years and to provide monthly reports detailing operations data for each port, Parson added.

Those are practices described by RMP’s Campbell, in a utility-owned program, and by ChargePoint’s Wilson, as a best practice for a charger company.

Like SCE, National Grid New York is focused on “bringing power through make-readies to the chargers” because it does not want to compete “where the private sector has animated the market,” said National Grid Director for Transport Electrification, New York, Brian Wilkie.

But a key National Grid concern is obtaining wider regulatory approval for proactive procurement and development of system infrastructure that utility planning and forecasting studies show will be needed as charging loads grow, Wilkie said.

A longstanding lack of investment means distribution systems require modernization, agreed Ken Munson, CEO and president of distribution system software provider Rhythmos. “But as the EV adoption curve ramps up, it is outstripping utilities’ ability to upgrade assets,” he said.

Private charger providers like ChargePoint also agree. Utilities cannot meet policy mandate timelines for EV growth “if they have to do [distribution system] upgrades at 10 MW of new load and again at 20 MW or new load,” he added.

A best approach to accelerated charging facility deployment may require one more factor, some stakeholders said.

The time factor

Despite emerging agreement on the need for demand charge relief, interconnection reform, and new approaches to utility cost recovery, the debate on the utility role in EV charging facility deployment is missing something, stakeholders said.

“Utility distribution systems are now the pathway to value from new technologies like EV charging and utilities now should have the ability to choose how to optimize that value while protecting reliability,” ATE’s Jones said.

But if policymakers do not prevent utilities from leveraging their competitive advantages, charging will be too “economically inefficient” to attract investment and EV adoption will be impeded, Lacey said.

The charger market “is still taking shape” and stakeholders are still “learning the optimal approach,” said Rhythmos’s Munson. Over time, “utilities have built the environment that exists” and solutions going forward from both utilities and private providers “will be extensions of that existing value,” he added.

The rapid adoption of electric vehicles is unleashing pent-up demand for charging infrastructure. The Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which tracks quarterly growth of EV charging infrastructure, has observed steady year-to-year growth in public electric vehicle supply equipment, or EVSE, ports. NREL estimates that the country will need to deploy about 200,000 DC fast charging EVSE ports (150 kW or greater) and about 1 million Level 2 public EVSE charging ports to support the over 30 million EVs estimated to be on the road by 2030. This growth presents a golden opportunity for those in the industry, but it also presents unique risks from a cybersecurity perspective.

The confluence of digital devices in the EV ecosystem presents a target-rich environment for cyber criminals. EVSE involves multiple interconnected platforms, connections to electric grid infrastructure, and exchanges of operational and customer data, all spread over a wide geographic footprint. A large-scale compromise of grid-connected EVSE could cause electric distribution system disturbances by manipulating load patterns or system voltage. Threat actors could also introduce malicious software to a customer’s EV by first compromising an unsecured charging station to which that EV eventually connects.

Mitigating those cyber risks effectively starts with the supply chain. Suppliers and purchasers must ensure that procurements for EVSE and related services contemplate cyber risks over the life cycle of their projects. The good news is that the industry and federal partners have recognized the need to reinforce cybersecurity at the contracting stage — the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation recently released guidance on cybersecurity procurement language. Suppliers and purchasers should consider the following guiding principles as they build out EVSE.

Begin risk mitigation during the procurement stage

Purchasers evaluating EVSE vendors should engage in cybersecurity risk mitigation activities with a risk assessment of the vendor. A vendor risk assessment typically involves some review of the vendor’s security controls, reputation, procedures and broader cybersecurity program with the goal of assigning a risk rating to the desired procurement. The risk assessment can help identify vulnerabilities or potential risks posed by the vendor and determine whether the purchaser can adequately mitigate those risks on its own or through contract provisions. Vendor risk assessments can also be used by purchasers on an ongoing basis, or through a third-party inspector, to evaluate the vendor’s cybersecurity posture.

Balance cyber risk and liability in supply contracts

Parties to EVSE contracts will need to strike the correct balance between cyber-risk sharing and managing potential liability for cybersecurity incidents. Vendors in the technology space often provide products under contracts that limit or fully disclaim liability. However, momentum is building to change that balance and require vendors to bear cybersecurity liability for unsecure products and services. Shifting liability upstream to vendors and suppliers was a key objective in the White House’s National Cybersecurity Strategy released earlier this year, which observed that “[r]esponsibility must be placed on the stakeholders most capable of taking action to prevent bad outcomes, not on the end-users that often bear the consequences of insecure software nor on the open-source developer of a component that is integrated into a commercial product.”

Purchasers of EVSE should use available tools — such as the risk assessment described above — to carefully weigh the cyber risks of an engagement and determine the appropriate share of cybersecurity liability. At a minimum, contracts should address scenarios in which the supplier is responsible for liabilities resulting from cybersecurity incidents or failure to meet the requisite standard of care.

Push for secure-by-design principles

Companies that are building their own charging networks, or contracting with others for that work, should incorporate cybersecurity considerations through the EVSE lifecycle to ensure that the product is “secure-by-design.” In engineering parlance, “secure-by-design” refers to a product that has been designed to be as foundationally secure from vulnerabilities as possible. Off-the-shelf products in the marketplace today are not designed with those principles in mind and can be deployed with significant security vulnerabilities. Purchasers and suppliers will need to pay particularly close attention to the cybersecurity risks across the entire lifecycle of EVSE — from conception to decommissioning — posed by hardware and software in their supply chains to avoid issues down the line.

Purchasers and suppliers should consider tools to improve transparency and foster secure development practices. Parties can negotiate on accepted secure design practices and standards to guide the work. Parties can also rely on tools, such as hardware and software bills of material, to inventory each component of EVSE to help ensure the integrity of the hardware and software it contains.

Effective cyber practices in post-transaction services

Purchasers that buy or lease EVSE will often require some degree of ongoing support under a long-term services agreement or similar arrangement. Contracts for these services should cover baseline cybersecurity practices, such as incident response, breach notifications, and vulnerability management (e.g., antivirus signature updates). The ongoing interactions between service providers and subcontractors with the purchaser’s EVSE also introduces multiple touchpoints that present unique cyber risks. Remote access is one example.

Purchasers should limit the availability of remote access where possible and ensure that the service provider is only allowing authorized personnel to perform work under the service agreement. The purchaser should also ensure that any obligations agreed to by the service provider, such as background checks for their personnel, will “flow down” to the service provider’s subcontractors performing the work as well.

There is no “silver bullet” that guarantees perfect cybersecurity, and contracts will not mitigate all future risks in the fast-moving EVSE industry. But careful planning at the procurement stage can save entities headaches in the future and help unleash the full energy potential of the EV ecosystem.

EVs could drive a 38% rise in U.S. electricity consumption by 2050, according to National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates. The demand will provide utilities with new revenues, but it will also require distribution system upgrades and load management strategies to ensure charging vehicles help maintain grid reliability rather than overload local electricity systems, experts say. 

To understand where to make grid upgrades, when to purchase more renewable energy and how to ensure customer satisfaction doesn’t suffer, utilities increasingly are working with a variety of participants in the automotive sector, including vehicle manufacturers, car dealerships and ride-hailing services.

“Because we don't make the cars, and we don't sell the cars, we know partnerships are absolutely critical,” said Nadia El Mallakh, Xcel Energy’s vice president of clean transportation and strategic partnerships.

“These are two groups of people that never had to interact before the dawn of EVs,” said Joel Levin, executive director of Plug In America. Automakers and utilities “are now partners until the end of time, whether they like it or not,” he said. Decisions made by automakers “have a huge impact on utilities, and vice versa.”

“We've seen an uptick in joint ventures across the board,” said Leilani Gonzalez, policy director for the Zero Emission Transportation Association. “Utilities are in a space where they're looking to decarbonize, and this is the pathway forward. They’re making sure we have a modern grid to handle the load fluctuations.”

To better understand how utilities are working with the automotive sector, Utility Dive has developed a tracker of partnerships and spoke with five utilities about their particular work. The partnerships span a range of subjects that include managed charging, vehicle-to-grid integration, matching demand to renewables supply and ensuring customers have a smooth transition to electric transportation.

PG&E, BMW expand partnership to explore V2X

EVs constitute about 7% of new vehicle sales today, but growing consumer interest and state and federal standards are expected to drive rapid adoption. President Joe Biden wants EVs to make up 50% of new vehicle sales by 2030. That means utilities will face a steep ramp in electricity demand for transportation, with higher peak loads potentially causing reliability issues.

“From a utility perspective, you want charging to be kind of smooth, not with big peaks,” Levin said. But automakers are building more powerful EVs with larger batteries and faster potential charging. A Level 2 home charger can draw up to 19 kW, meaning a few electric vehicles on the same block can turn into “a big surge in demand” if not effectively managed, he said.

Pacific Gas & Electric began partnering with BMW in 2015 on a smart-charging pilot with “some really basic functionality,” said Adam Langton, energy services manager at BMW of North America Group.

“We started with demand response events where we're just curtailing [vehicle charging], and then we started doing more complex things where we're actually looking at the impact on local distribution by simulating scenarios where we were testing how vehicles respond to a signal in a specific a neighborhood,” Langton said.

In May, the two companies announced they would expand their partnership to also study an EV’s potential to send power back to the electric grid or to power a home or other building. Interest in vehicle-to-everything technologies, known as V2X, is growing as utilities see EVs as something akin to mobile distributed energy resources.

“We need these kinds of partnerships for this to work,” said Amy Costadone, principal product manager for PG&E. The utility is also working with Ford and General Motors on bidirectional charging.

The research partnerships are “critical” for EVs to be used as grid assets, Costadone said. “We need everyone to win if we want this to be scalable, and not just for one EV” manufacturer, she said.

BMW and PG&E plan to test vehicle-to-grid applications in a field trial at a BMW facility in Mountain View, California, and other V2X applications at PG&E’s Applied Technology Services Lab in San Ramon.

“We usually keep our expenses separate and work on different activities,” Langton said.

“We need to understand how the customers really want to use this,” Costadone said. “I feel good about the partnerships that we have and that the technology will get there. The engineering is possible to make this a reality.”

Consolidated Edison tests new technology with GM Energy, others

In New York City, Consolidated Edison has several partnerships allowing it to test and implement new equipment connecting EVs to the grid. In October, the utility announced it would work with GM Energy, a new energy management unit of General Motors, to test how EV chargers can track energy use and charging behavior without the need for a separate meter.

“It’s more of an arrangement of convenience,” said Joe Morreale, ConEd’s section manager for EV demonstration projects and managed charging. “Both parties have things they want to learn and test and experiment with that they can't do on their own.”

ConEd wants to learn more about GM hardware to “get a sense of what it's capable of, how it might function as a distributed energy resource,” he said. And the partnership provides GM with access to testing data and real-world grid conditions.

“It's really an opportunity for both parties to learn from the other's expertise and develop products that are tailored for the benefit of their end customers,” Morreale said.

ConEd has also partnered with the FLO charging network and the city of New York to install curbside chargers and study how they’re used and how public charging can advance EV adoption in the nation’s most populous city. Whether public or private entities are involved in EV-related partnerships, the “grand scope is much the same,” Morreale said. “Both the utility and third party recognize that there are benefits to working together, sharing information, more than if each party goes about it separately.”

In the case of curbside charging, FLO has expertise with EV charging equipment while the city holds the franchise over the streets.

“And so the result is that we get to install hardware on a city street, which is not somewhere where we normally get to install,” Morreale said. 

“It’s really a perfect union,” he said. The private business is supplying the technology while the city supplies “the laboratory” and the utility brings data, program administration and execution. “That's just not something you can do unilaterally, and we're really happy with the results so far,” he said.

Dominion maintains close ties with electric bus dealership

Dominion Energy has multiple partnerships in the EV space, but the “largest and most fully implemented” is its electric school bus program and its work with dealership Sonny Merryman, said Kate Staples, the utility’s director of electrification.

Dominion launched its program in 2019 with a competitive request for proposals, and it selected Sonny Merryman, a Virginia dealer of fleet transportation, to deliver 50 electric school buses beginning in 2020. Sonny Merryman also sells the necessary chargers to the school districts and assists in supporting the installation of those chargers, said Whitney Kopanko, EV program manager and marketing director at Sonny Merryman.

The program has two phases. In the first, Dominion installs, owns and maintains the charging infrastructure for the the school districts and also owns the battery on the school buses, Staples said.

Because electric buses are still more expensive than diesel, “we needed to provide a financial means of helping the school districts get over that hump,” Staples said. “So the school district pays for the traditional part of the bus and we pay for the increment, and so we own the battery.”

“At the end of our agreement with those school districts, we own the battery, we can take it out of the bus and we can use it as stationary storage,” she added.

The last of the 50 buses covered by Dominon’s initial RFP was sent out in 2021, but Sonny Merryman “continues to work very closely [with Dominion] on charger installation,” Kopanko said.

“We work together on actually designing [the site] and installing the chargers [with] our sales individuals, our service individuals, working with Dominion,” Kopanko said. There are site visits to discuss customer locations and needs and how the dealership and utility can support those aspirations.

“A lot of our fleet customers, historically, have been really intensive energy users. They are really complex electricity users,” Staples said. As school districts switch to electric buses, “we want to make sure that we're strengthening our relationship with them and making sure that we deliver what they need from an electricity perspective,” she said.

“That's where the partnership with the dealership comes in and is really critical. Because the dealerships understand the needs of those customers,” said Staples. Sonny Merryman “has been instrumental in connecting the utility with the customer and making sure the customer has the education that they need.”

In Colorado, Xcel has a unique regulatory approach to EV partnerships

In Colorado, Xcel Energy makes use of a unique regulatory vehicle to move quickly on research pilots and partnerships, said El Mallakh. The Public Utilities Commission approved a portfolio for the utility that allows it to launch initiatives through a 60-day notice process.

“It's a $10 million program that supports partnerships, research and innovation in the EV ecosystem,” she said. The utility is running more than half a dozen partnerships through the portfolio and has proposed the same approach in Minnesota.

“It's like a mini filing. It's pretty simplified,” she said. The 60-day notice lays out the goal of the partnership, Xcel's investment and what the partner brings to the table.

In one of the projects, Xcel has partnered with Colorado CarShare to study how to reduce the upfront and operational costs of car-sharing services that support underserved communities.

Through the nearly $2.5 million initiative, Xcel will provide rebates to help make EV purchases more affordable for the program, perform the make-ready work for charging infrastructure and provide charging equipment for a variety of partners, including the Boulder County Housing Authority, the town of Breckenridge, Colorado Mountain College and the University of Colorado.

Peninsula Clean Energy turns to ride-sharing services for grid data

Energy providers that are not distribution system owners are also forging partnerships to handle EV growth.

Peninsula Clean Energy is a community choice aggregator operating in San Mateo County, California, with a goal of providing 100% clean energy by 2025. There are about 45,000 EVs in the county, and they are about 34% of new purchases, said Phillip Kobernick, PCE’s senior transportation program manager.

PG&E delivers the electricity, but under California’s CCA model the provider is tasked with ensuring the supply.

“The pressing issue for us is renewables alignment,” Kobernick said. “We want to be providing 100% renewable energy every hour of the day. And there's a couple of hours that are more challenging ... And having massive incoming DC fast-charging spikes happen at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. on a daily basis will make that challenge harder.”

In 2021, PCE partnered with Flexdrive, an independently managed subsidiary of Lyft, to trade grid data for subsidized vehicle rentals. PCE is subsidizing the cost of 100 EVs that drivers can rent from Flexdrive, ensuring they are the same cost as a hybrid vehicle and providing free charging.

“It's meant to really convey a lot of benefits,” Kobernick said. “We wanted to learn what it looks like when you have EVs in these types of high-mileage services. How do drivers like them, how are they charging them, and what are the barriers to further expansion?” 

Lyft published a mid-cycle assessment in a blog post in March, examining data from more than 213,000 rides covering more than 2.72 million miles. The subsidized EVs consumed a collective 3,000 kWh per day, on average, “saving an estimated 146 gallons of gas per day.”

PCE gets utilization data each month and load shape analysis less frequently. So far, it has identified problematic hours where delivering all clean energy to customers can be a challenge.

“We might want to explore alternatives to having folks doing mass fast charging during those hours,” Kobernick said. Alternatives could include incentives for off-peak charging or battery swapping, he said.

PCE is also working on a managed charging pilot targeting residential customers who charge at home. That work is being done in partnership with EV Energy, and the results ultimately will be shared with the University of California-Davis.

“We want to do our own analysis, but we also want to share it with academic partners who are interested in studying energy and economics and have them do their own independent analysis,” Kobernick said.

The U.S. Department of Energy on August 31 unveiled a $15.5 billion funding package to speed the nation’s transition to electric vehicles, including support for battery manufacturing and retrofitting auto plants.

The funding includes $2 billion in grants and up to $10 billion in loans to support converting traditional automotive manufacturing facilities to produce EVs. Preference will be given to projects that maintain collective bargaining agreements and provide better labor conditions.

DOE also intends to make $3.5 billion available to grow domestic battery production and raw materials processing. “We have historically relied on other countries for battery parts. No more,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a call with media to announce the funding. 

The U.S. is now “firmly in the implementation phase” of investments stemming from the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure law, Granholm said. 

“In just two years, we've seen announcements of more than $143 billion in clean energy manufacturing. So we know that the clean energy economy is changing before our eyes,” she said. “But it's so important to remember that you don't always have to reinvent the wheel — instead, you can realign it.”

That realignment means transitioning U.S. auto manufacturing facilities to produce emissions-free vehicles, while also bolstering domestic supply chains for batteries and other essential technologies.

DOE will make up to $10 billion available under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program for conversion projects “that retain high-quality jobs in communities that currently host manufacturing facilities,” the agency said.

Examples of how the funds can be used include “retaining existing workers, providing high wages and benefits, including workplace rights, or commitments such as keeping the existing facility open until a new facility is complete, in the case of facility replacement projects,” DOE said. The agency is accepting applications now.

Another $2 billion funding opportunity is available to encourage the conversion of “long-standing facilities to manufacture electric vehicles and components.” The program will give “particular attention to communities supporting facilities with longer histories in automotive manufacturing,” DOE said.

“While we retrofit factory floors we also need to retain and retrain and rehire those workers with the same or higher wages,” Granholm said. “We are going to focus on financing projects that are in longstanding automaking communities that keep folks already working on the payroll, [and] projects that advance collective bargaining agreements that create high paying long lasting jobs.”

The United Auto Workers union celebrated the funding announcement, which officials said helps tie stronger labor standards to taxpayer funded projects.

The Biden administration is rejecting “the false choice between a good job and a green job,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement. “The EV transition must be a just transition that ensures auto workers have a place in the new economy.”

DOE’s funding announcement also included a notice of intent to provide $3.5 billion through the bipartisan infrastructure law to grow battery manufacturing and domestic supply chains. It follows a similar effort last year that led to 20 companies receiving $2.8 billion for battery production.

“This kind of this funding is going to help us create a resilient, domestic supply chain for batteries that power EVs and our nation's grid,” Granholm said. “And in keeping with our commitment to America's workers, we're going to prioritize projects that lift energy communities and empower workers who have a strong voice in the workplace and in this transition.”

Deadlines for concept papers and full applications have not been set. The agency expects to make up to 41 awards in the form of grants, in amounts from $50 million to $300 million.

BMW Group, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Stellantis and the Mercedes-Benz Group will collaborate in a new joint venture to install at least 30,000 high-powered electric vehicle chargers along major highways and in urban locations in North America, the companies said July 26.

The chargers include two plug options: the Combined Charging System, or CCS, and Tesla’s North American Charging Standard.

The first charging stations will open in the U.S. in the summer of 2024, the companies said in a statement.

The joint venture will leverage both public and private funds to build the network. By including the CCS plug, the joint venture can access $7.5 billion in federal funding available under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law to expand the EV charging network in the U.S.

“North America is one of the world’s most important car markets, with the potential to be a leader in electromobility,” BMW CEO Oliver Zipse said in a statement. “Accessibility to high-speed charging is one of the key enablers to accelerate this transition.”

Participating automakers will allow EV drivers to access the network via their vehicle’s infotainment screens, with features such as route planning and navigation and energy management. The network will also leverage more convenient plug & charge technology to allow drivers to pay for charging sessions without using an app or credit card.

The charging locations will offer amenities such as canopies with restrooms, food service and retail options within the same complex or nearby. The joint venture also plans to build flagship charging stations that offer premium amenities. 

“GM’s commitment to an all-electric future is focused not only on delivering EVs our customers love, but investing in charging and working across the industry to make it more accessible,” CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. “The better experience people have, the faster EV adoption will grow.”

The joint venture charging network announcement comes as the participating automakers accelerate their electrification plans, which will increase EV charging demand in the U.S. Joint venture partners General Motors and Mercedes-Benz are also adopting Tesla’s North American Charging Standard for their future EVs to gain access to roughly 12,000 additional Superchargers as part of an agreement with the electric automaker.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that 182,000 publicly accessible DC fast chargers are needed to create a large enough network to support up to 42 million EVs in the U.S. by 2030. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, there are roughly 55,000 EV charging stations in the U.S. 

The joint venture partners intend to use renewable energy to power the network.

The transition to electric vehicles will require significant new amounts of power generation for charging, but utilities say those resources can be developed in time. A more pressing challenge may be managing new charging loads, ensuring millions of vehicles do not put undue stress on the grid.

There will be 30 million to 42 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads in 2030, and they will require about 28 million charging ports, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Utilities, distributed energy resource aggregators and research institutions are all stepping up to address the issue.

“Power generation is only a part of this conversation. Just as important is improving our ability to manage demand in real time,” Albert Gore, executive director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, said July 24 in a discussion of how the utility sector must approach EVs.

“The industry needs to further its ability to precisely manage demand in real time, including by accurately predicting when and where increases in demand will occur,” according to a new ZETA policy brief.

Utilities — particularly larger electricity providers in urban areas — have been working for years to nudge EV charging to off-peak hours through time-of-use rates or EV-specific rates.

Consolidated Edison, which serves New York City, expects more than a quarter million EVs in its territory by 2025 and has been working since 2017 to encourage grid-beneficial charging through its SmartCharge program, which offers incentives for drivers to avoid charging during peak times.

“It's one of, if not the most, successful managed charging programs in the country,” Cliff Baratta, Con Edison’s electric vehicle strategy and markets section manager, said during ZETA’s discussion. At the end of 2022, the utility had 20% of all light-duty EVs registered in its territory enrolled in the program.

“In a lot of other places, we see that 5-6% is considered good,” Baratta said. “We have been able to get really strong engagement with that program, to try and entrench this grid beneficial charging behavior.”

Research institutions are working to develop solutions. Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago have partnered on the development of a new algorithm to manage EV charging that utilizes machine learning to efficiently schedule loads. 

Distributed energy resource managers are rolling out approaches to managing the anticipated demand..

FlexCharging, which has provided managed charging programs and pilots since 2019, is rolling out a product called EVision for smaller utilities that may have fewer resources to devote to demand management initiatives.

Cloud-based software company Virtual Peaker on July 25 launched a managed charging solution that allows utilities to utilize both vehicle telematics data or internet-connected EV chargers to manage vehicles in charging programs.

The company is focusing on “creating a single, scalable solution to increase adoption of distributed energy resources programs and help utilities reach their goals more quickly and efficiently,” Virtual Peaker founder and CEO Williams Burke said in a statement.

The company’s DER platform is already being used by Efficiency Maine, the state’s administrator for energy efficiency and demand management programs, to manage battery systems and EV chargers during peak demand periods.

Utilities are preparing for unprecedented demand growth from electric vehicles but say it is a “misconception” that the power grid will be overloaded and become unstable. New system planning and load management tools must be developed, but EVs are a flexible load that experts say can improve grid resilience.

A policy brief published July 24 by the Zero Emission Transportation Association examines key energy considerations associated with the rise of electric transportation, and provides case studies of how major utilities are approaching the EV transition.

In California, Pacific Gas & Electric has almost 500,000 electric vehicles in its territory and anticipates 3 million by 2030. They are a “critical piece” of PG&E’s strategy going forward, Nick Morelli, a strategic analyst of decarbonization strategies at the utility, said July 24 in a discussion hosted by ZETA.

PG&E expects system demand to increase up to 70% over the next two decades as more EVs are added. To meet that demand efficiently, the utility developed a forecasting tool and integrated it into its distribution planning processes.

“A common misconception that we hear a lot is that the grid is not ready, or that increased loading from electric vehicles will overload the system,” Morelli said. “It's definitely true that electric vehicles will represent unprecedented load growth,” but the flexibility of EV charging “actually provides a great opportunity to improve resilience.”

EVs in the United States consumed 6.1 TWh of electricity in 2021, according to ZETA, a group advocating for full EV adoption by 2030. An additional 15-27 TWh of annual new power generation will be needed between now and 2050 to meet growing demand from electric transportation.

“History has proven increases of this magnitude to be accomplishable,” according to the group’s policy brief. New renewable and zero-emitting generation resources will be needed, along with strategies to manage load and the streamlining of regulatory processes to interconnect resources.

PG&E initially relied on customer applications to understand where additional capacity was needed, but has since developed more proactive tools, said Morelli.

“The reactive approach worked relatively well for utilities in the past as you avoid stranded assets,” Morelli said. “But just due to the speed that loads materialize ... instead of taking that peanut butter approach of just spreading and disaggregating load across our system, we individually analyzed the most common segments of electric vehicle charging and we developed an adaptable forecasting tool.”

Of the 3 million EVs expected on its system, PG&E says 2 million will be integrated with the grid: participating in time-of-use rates, managed charging or vehicle-to-grid bidirectional charging programs.

South of PG&E’s territory, Southern California Edison officials also say EVs represent an opportunity. The utility has more than 430,000 EVs in its service area.

“One of the big misconceptions I hear ... is that EVs will negatively impact grid resilience,” said Chanel Parson, director of SCE’s building and transportation electrification programs. But a typical passenger vehicle is only operating a fraction of the day, leaving up to 23 hours when it could be charging or discharging back to the grid, she said.

“Flexible load can help utilities balance the natural daily peaks on the grid, and make the grid more resilient by exporting load to the grid or removing home and building load,” Parson said. Today, SCE utilizes vehicle-to-grid applications in emergencies but is “setting the groundwork” to make it a common strategy, she said.

The utility also offers infrastructure programs to fund and install utility and customer-side infrastructure, vehicle rebate programs and customer advisory services, she said.

But to continue advancing the transition, utilities say they need greater certainty around the state and federal government’s commitment to EVs in order to advance grid upgrades and build out capacity. And persistent supply chain issues must be addressed.

“We are seeing long lead times and exponentially higher costs for critical equipment that support grid stability and EV infrastructure,” Parson said.

Regulatory frameworks that allow utilities to invest “proactively” are important, said Cliff Baratta, Consolidated Edison’s electric vehicle strategy and markers section manager. The utility serves New York City and is preparing for 230,000 EVs in its territory by 2025. Since 2017 it has been working to encourage grid-beneficial charging through its SmartCharge program, which offers incentives for drivers to avoid charging during peak times.

“Here in New York, we're meeting all electric service requests for EV chargers and the impact on the grid has been limited so far,” Baratta said. “When we look out several years, it's going to become a challenge. We anticipate extremely large loads coming.”

There will be 30 million to 42 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads in 2030, requiring a rapid, widespread buildout of charging infrastructure that will be focused on homes and multi-family residencies, according to a new report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

The mid-adoption scenario of roughly 33 million plug-in vehicles will require 26.8 million Level 1 and Level 2 ports at single-family homes, apartments and other locations, NREL said. Another 182,000 public direct current fast chargers, or DCFC, will be needed, along with 1 million Level 2 public chargers located near offices, retail stores and in high-density neighborhoods.

The study shows “we're going to need to continue to work together — both public and private entities — to build the national network that we'll need,” said Eric Wood, an NREL senior researcher who led the study’s team.

A cumulative national capital investment between $53 billion and $127 billion will be needed to construct sufficient charging infrastructure by 2030, according to NREL’s study.

Of the total, up to $72 billion will be required for Level 1 and Level 2 private chargers, while up to $44 billion will go to build out public DCFC infrastructure. In addition, up to $11 billion will be needed for publicly accessible Level 2 ports. And those figures do not include the costs of grid upgrades and distributed energy resources, NREL said, which “can be significant in many cases and will ultimately be critical in building out the national charging network.”

NREL determined power system costs “tend to be site-specific” and considered them out of the scope of its analysis.

There are less than 1.5 million charging ports in the U.S., according to the report, which also identified about about 132,000 publicly accessible charging ports already installed as of March, including 29,000 DCFC ports.

“We have detailed estimates of what infrastructure will be needed," Wood said in a June 27 statement. "American drivers' interest in electric vehicles is accelerating year over year, and we're already seeing the market respond with new investments.”

Electric vehicles comprise up to 10% of new vehicle sales as of early 2023, according to the report. President Joe Biden wants half of new light-duty vehicle sales to be electric by 2030, and is directing the rollout of a 500,000-public-charger network.

The report notes the technology behind vehicle charging is evolving, particularly for fast chargers.

“While most near-term fast charging demand is simulated as being met by 150-kW DC chargers, advances in battery technology are expected to stimulate demand for higher-power charging,” the report noted. “We estimate that by 2030, DC chargers rated for at least 350 kW will be the most prevalent technology across the national fast charging network.”

California leads the nation when it comes to state policies encouraging electric vehicle adoption, and no other state comes close, according to a new report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. 

ACEEE’s 2023 State Transportation Electrification Scorecard awarded the Golden State 88 out of 100 possible points. California wants to electrify all light-duty vehicles; it’s investing in the power grid; and it has made equity a key consideration in its efforts. New York ranked second, with 62 points.

States must move “far more aggressively” to encourage adoption of EVs and enable the electric grid to reliably charge them, Peter Huether, senior research associate at ACEEE and lead author of the report, said in a statement.

While some states have made significant strides to encourage EV adoption, some have done very little, ACEEE’s report shows.

The group assessed all 50 states and the District of Columbia, but it only ranked the top 33 “because states ranked lower than that each achieved no more than 15% of the total available points,” according to the report published June 28.

Rounding out the top five states are Colorado, Massachusetts and Vermont.

“We are seeing incremental progress, not transformational progress,” Huether said. “States will have to move far more aggressively to do their part to enable the electric vehicle transition that the climate crisis demands.”

Among the strong policies states have adopted, California requires 100% of light-duty vehicle sales to be zero-emissions by 2035, and it requires increasing proportions of heavy-duty sales to meet that standard as well.

“States are moving to adopt critical programs developed by California that will drive EV penetration,” the report found. As of May, seven states had adopted the light-duty mandate while eight had adopted the heavy-duty targets.

California and New York are leaders in EV incentives. Both states have “comprehensive and substantial EV tax credits and rebates,” the report found. Further, “California scores full points for utility spending on EV charging infrastructure.”

Colorado’s score was most improved, said ACEEE, tallying 61 points for improvements “across the board but particularly in optimizing its electricity grid for EVs and accelerating the adoption of [heavy-duty] EVs.” The state scored 48 points in the 2021 version of the report.

Massachusetts requires EV-ready parking spaces in some new commercial building construction, and it has allocated its initial funding from the Volkswagen environmental mitigation fund to electrify regional transit buses and develop charging infrastructure.

Vermont has mandated a zero-emission transit bus procurement target for transit agencies and led all states on transportation electrification outcomes, ACEEE said. The state has the most Level 2 charging ports and electric transit buses per 100,000 residents.  

Oklahoma, ranked 21st, has the most direct-current fast chargers per capita.

When it comes to equity of the transition, ACEEE said California and New York “are again leaders.” Both states have dedicated portions of their EV programs towards low-income, economically distressed, or environmental justice communities, California at 42% and New York at 16%.

On the whole, however, states “scored poorly on equity metrics,” the report said. And only California scored more than half the points available for equity considerations. “Few states other than California have made significant investments to ensure that electric vehicles and charging are available in underserved communities,” ACEEE said.

“Supportive state policies are needed to ensure that the electric grid is ready and that all households and businesses, including those in underserved communities, can use EVs and have adequate access to charging,” Huether said.

States looking to improve their score should begin by collecting data, including EV registrations, charger locations, and EV adoption by race and income, the report recommends. They can also look to federal funding authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the bipartisan infrastructure law “to help coordinate planning and deployment of charging infrastructure,” alongside private funding.