EV Symposium: Full Session Descriptions

The Road We’ve Traveled: Key Learnings from Innovative Utility Managed Charging Programs

Utility sponsored EV load management programs have included a mix of behavioral load control (i.e., having the customer set and manage their own EV charging schedule) and active load control (i.e., where the utility manages the EV charging schedule). Each of these program “genres” has varying approaches, including different incentive structures, customer notifications and alerts, and program requirements. This presentation will first present a “taxonomy” of the different programs around the country, helping set the stage for a “deeper dive” into case studies of four recent (2022-2023) EV load management programs from Eversource, TXU, ComEd, and Puget Sound Energy. Presenters from each utility will share results from their programs focused on grid impacts and key learnings about the managed charging customer experience. The session will conclude with a synthesis and comparison of trends and insights across and beyond these programs. Insights from this presentation will give load management practitioners a better understanding of the drivers of customer attitudes and behaviors towards managed charging and how load management interventions (e.g., passive vs. active load control) and regional differences play a role in shaping these outcomes. Practitioners that attend this session will come away with a critical understanding of the current state of knowledge around best practices for designing and implementing customer-centric managed charging programs that maximize load impacts.

Day 1 Break Out A

Driving OEM-Based Dynamic Optimization Programs: Benefits and Lessons Learned
Lessons learned for active OEM-based managed charging pilots and design considerations for dynamic optimization charging programs. This will include insights from Xcel Energy’s EV managed charging program, focused on measuring program impacts, especially when impacts continue changing & improving over time. The 45-minute panel will include live audience polling, audience insights around capturing a baseline for managed charging programs, and Q&A.

The Devil’s in the Data: Challenges in Evaluating EV Managed Charging Programs
Historically, load management programs have been deployed to control HVAC or whole building loads, and evaluation best practices have been designed to construct baselines for those kinds of electric loads. However, load shapes and associated data from EV managed charging programs look very different from traditional DR resources and require us to re-think traditional evaluation approaches. In this interactive workshop, we will look at what is unique about EV charging data, explore methods that have been deployed to date to evaluate managed charging offerings, and walk through key considerations for each of these approaches, including desired grid impacts and baseline selection. This presentation will highlight lessons learned from real world case studies of managed charging program load impact analyses from PG&E and other utilities. Attendees will come away better equipped to make decisions around EV charging data and managed charging evaluation approaches.

Day 1 Break Out B

Utilities, OEMs, and the Managed Charging Connection
Managed EV charging companies have engaged in a range of pilot programs with electric utilities, including time-of-use rates and other demand management programs, and some have partnered directly with automotive OEMs. Some of these projects have benefited from standards-based integrations, including OpenADR, which reduce costs and speed time-to-market. Hear from several companies on their work partnering with utilities and also with automotive OEMs, their views on technical integration, and their perspectives on creative forms of business partnerships between new industry players.

How to Turn on Your EV Drivers (To Load Management)
After 2.5 Million customer participation days, we’ve learned these keys to EV load management: Only about one-third of EVs are worth targeting. High peak contributors and frequent transformer overloaders are most valuable. Find them using AMI meter data, and market to them directly. Make things simple for drivers! Even “earlier adopters” opt-out of complex programs, particularly when there are different programs depending on EV/EVSE. Winning concepts are Tweetable - “Get 2,000 free miles of driving per year by programming your EV to charge overnight.” Simple is more effective! Passive load management with AMI compliance monitoring may seem like a “starter program” before active management solutions are available. But, when passive programs deliver 90+% overnight charging EVERY day and less than 2% of charging occurs during the peak hour - there isn’t much room left for improvement. Adding active load management increases costs and reduces performance.

Day 1 Break Out C

BGE Smart Charge Management Program
The session will focus on the BGE Smart Charge Management program, a four-year EV managed charging pilot in conjunction with the Department of Enegry. The program categorizes EV charging into three EV customer groups (residential, commercial fleets, and public) an explores how to effectively manage electric load from the three using varying forms on demand response or curtailment. EV drivers are incentivized to participate through monthly bill credits and have the option to opt-out if they need to charge immediately. Since launching in late 2022, the company has seen very low opt-outs (less than 1%) and low unenrollments, showing use benefits of managed charging to Maryland's electric grid.

Winter EV Demand Response: Timing, Duration, Impacts and Customer Experience
Residential EV Demand Response (DR) pilots are becoming critical utility portfolio components, building resilience and meeting emerging customer needs. This presentation will explore key findings from AES Indiana's winter 2022-2023 residential EV DR pilot. The pilot, which included 127 EnelX EV chargers, tested seven morning and evening DR events varying in duration from one to four hours. We share insights on daily EV charging loadshapes and how charging behaviors vary by time, day of week, and temperature, as well as the extent to which EV demand is coincident with typical grid peak periods, the implications for optimal timing of EV DR events, and the DR impacts associated with the pilot. We will also compare the charging patterns and load shifting of DR-enrolled customers with those enrolled in AES Indiana’s EV Time-of-Use rate. Finally, we will contextualize these impact findings with customer experiences from our survey of pilot participants.

Equitable EV Adoption in the Residential Rental Segment
The City of Colorado Springs, along with Rolling Energy Resources, embarked on a Department of Energy funded study to better understand the barriers to EV charging – and thus EV adoption – among the multi-unit dwelling (MUD) market. The study included a few components, including: An analysis of EV adoption patterns by zip code to see if geographic areas with higher MUD densities were lagging in EV adoption, and by how much Interviews with MUD property managers and owners to gage interest in EV charging stations, as well as perceived interest and barriers to EV adoption among their tenants Collection of EV telematics data to assess differences in charging patterns among single family vs. MUD residents The project also included the development of a decision-tool, with an interactive dashboard, to help communities optimize EV charging siting to serve as many MUD residents as possible.

Data-based Transformer Replacement Sizing for EV Adoption
The increase in EV adoption implies higher charging demand on the grid and the overall loading of distribution system assets. Appropriate sizing of replacement service transformers is becoming increasingly important considering changing load profiles and increased thermal overloading risk due to EV adoption, increasing cost and lead time for replacement service transformers, and long term operational and reliability impacts.

A Sacramento Municipal Utility District case study will show the evolution of data-based approaches for replacement service transformer sizing compared to historical guidance:

1) Submetered and vehicle telematics data used to construct diversified EV charging load shapes to provide insight on transformer loading at a specified risk confidence level.
2) The EPRI EV Hotspotter tool used to evaluate the impact of replacement service transformer sizing on the replacement cost, the risk of future thermal overload, and energy losses all with knowledge of grid topology.
3) Future enhancements to take into consideration electrification of other end uses and the impact of climate change.

The Impact and Effectiveness of Time-Varying Pricing on EV Charging Behavior
SDG&E has over 2.6M vehicles registered in its service territory, and electric vehicles have one of the highest new vehicle market shares. A key question utilities are facing is whether it is most effective to manage charging via time-varying pricing, electric vehicle chargers, or telematics.We plan to present large-scale empirical evidence of the effectiveness of time-varying prices for managing home charging, multi-family dwelling charging, and workplace charging. SDG&E has managed to enroll between 40-50% of homes with electric vehicles (over 30,000 homes) on its electric vehicle time of use rates. In addition, SDG&E owns and operates over 2,500 charging ports at over 250 multi-family and workplace sites. Electric vehicle charging at these sites is billed under a dynamic hourly rate that incorporates hourly market prices.

Vehicle Grid Integration OEM Panel

Three vehicle OEMs will provide examples of recent utility partnered Vehicle Grid Integration (VGI) pilots including:

1. BMW’s ChargeForward pilot with focused on renewable integration and distribution infrastructure deferral,
2. GM’s V2X Pilot with exploring V2H, V2G, and VPP solutions and its participation through the OVGIP in Xcel’s Energy Charging Perks Pilot Program providing V1G managed charging,
3. Ford participation through the OVGIP in DTE Energy’s Smart Charge Program to provide Demand Response.

Following presentations, SMUD will moderate discussion among the OEMs to explore the current and future state of Managed Charging with a focus on electric utility interests and impacts.

Estimating Grid Impacts of Medium and Heavy-Duty Fleet Electrification

Medium and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs) represent about 5% of the total US vehicle fleet but are responsible for almost one-third of the total greenhouse gas emissions. This makes the electrification of the MHDV transportation sector critical for the US to achieve its climate goals of emissions reduction. Several state and national level policies (e.g., Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation) have been adopted in recent years targeted to accelerate MHDV fleet electrification. Commercially owned fleets have significantly varying duty cycles, charging behavior and often require extremely fast charging rates to reduce charging times. In this presentation we will discuss our approach to determine the likely trajectory of fleet electrification of businesses operating in a utility’s service territory, where and when those vehicles would charge and what would be the impacts of such charging load on the system coincident peak load.

Day 2 Break Out D

Who's in Charge? PGE's Test Bed EV Charging Study
Portland General Electric's innovative Smart Grid Test Bed is being leveraged to conduct the Test Bed EV Charging Study, a two year demonstration designed to use vehicle telematics to study customer EV charging behaviors and the associated impacts on the distribution grid, as well as how PGE can tailor customer EV charging schedules to align with the goals and needs of the utility. This presentation will focus on how this study compliments the existing PGE managed charging programs, its research goals and the associated use cases being tested, and the initial takeaways that have been gathered since the study's launch in February 2023.

Limits of EV Telematics Data
How do EV telematics work, and do they provide meter quality 15 minute interval data? Or, does someone need to devote years to cleaning, normalizing, analyzing data, then working around vehicle-specific quirks?What do managed charging solutions need to do to meet utility program goals? Is a program constrained by automakers and cellular networks, and by how much? FlexCharging has been collecting data from vehicles since 2017 and will share their experience on what works well, where the EV OEM’s need to make improvements, and how to level-set your expectations for a successful program. Come see how the sausage is made!

What’s Next for V2X? Learnings From the Largest V2G Trial
A typical EV sits parked 90% of the time with a battery capable of storing 40kWh of energy – enough to power an average home for two days. EVs provide a phenomenal opportunity for customers to store cheap, green energy and, with the latest vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology, use it to power their homes and sell it back to the grid. V2X not only benefits customers with free driving miles, cheaper household energy bills and lower carbon footprints, but enables a more affordable and resilient energy transition.Drawing from the findings of the world’s first domestic V2X trial with Kaluza, Nissan and OVO Energy, this session will discuss how V2X can accelerate our progress towards net zero, its unplugged potential for both customers and providers, and the complex regulations surrounding this shift. Sample results include: $477 customer annual savings 2.19 GWh of demand shifted 45% CO2 savings compared to unmanaged charging.

Day 2 Break Out E

The OEM and EVSE Perspective on Managed Charging
Electric vehicle OEMs and EV service equipment providers play a critical role in maximizing the benefits and mitigating the risks of transportation electrification for the grid, but their point of view has not been adequately represented in discussions about the future of managed charging. This session will cover the goals and outcomes of successful programs from the perspective of OEMs and EVSE manufacturers, including discussion of V2L, V2H, V2B, V2G, and B2B partnerships, and ideas for addressing the lack of standardized protocols. We'll also review frameworks for effective collaboration, compensation mechanisms, means of valuing grid services beyond managing system-wide peak load, and how to build the best experience for drivers, including when to make the introduction to utility programs in the EV buying experience.

Best Practices: EV-Ready Requirements in New Construction and Existing Buildings
This presentation looks at how best to prepare North America’s building stock to accommodate growing quantities of EV charging. It provides an overview of the concept of EV-readiness in buildings. It then argues that new building code requirements, combined with a comprehensive approach to retrofits of the existing building stock, are best practices that can meaningfully accelerate the transition toward a low-carbon, electrified transportation sector. A growing set of leading municipalities in Canada have implemented 100% EV-ready requirements for new residential construction (to measurable success), along with significant EV Ready requirements for new commercial buildings. Leveraging first-hand experience in the development of these policy and building code changes, Brendan and Peter will deliver practical advice on how US municipalities, states and utilities can take a leadership role and facilitate EV-ready buildings in their jurisdictions.

Day 2 Break Out F

Harmonization of eV and Electricity Ecosystems — PLMA/GLMIG
To realize decarbonization goals which have been established, it is imperative that electrification of the transportation system to zero emissions be achieved. Government and private sectors, including the automotive OEMs are working diligently to realize this over the next one to two decades. To achieve this objective, billions of dollars are being invested in eV charging management infrastructure to support the transition to eVs. The communication technology and protocols to support eV charging are not adequate to support any sort of grid services such as volt/var and frequency support, which will be required once we have V2X deployments. is our belief that the electrified transportation and the electricity grid ecosystems are on divergent paths and that without harmonization we run the risk of not only not having the grid capacity to support the electrified transportation ecosystem, but that the electrified transportation system will jeopardize grid reliability and resiliency.

A Transactive Energy Platform for Optimal V1G and V2G Management
With increasing numbers of EV-fleet to the transportation system in metropolitan cities, the power distribution grid should be upgraded as well to keep up with the EV-fleet charge demand at different grid nodes/buses and different times of a day. The power distribution grid upgrades are costly and timely. Therefore, short-term and mid-term solutions for EV-fleet charge management should be in place. Transactive based EV-fleet charge and discharge management with price incentives to charge during off-peak hours and discharge during on-peak hours is feasible and practical. In this interactive panel/workshop we will discuss about hardware and software implementation of Transactive based EV-fleet management with real case studies in north America. We will also introduce a Transactive Energy platform with autonomus bid/offer submission to EVSE aggregators, negotiation, e-contract signing and financial settlements, DERMS based TE market clearing with different Power Utility objective functions.

Managed Charging to the Rescue: Cambridge, MA in 2033

EVs pose a challenge to grid stability, particularly in dense, urban areas where building out infrastructure to support increased load is not an easy option.Eversource is investigating how different managed charging program designs can help to mitigate EVs impact to the local grid with particular focus on areas already known to be capacity constrained, such as the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts. This presentation will discuss how our understanding of travel patterns, customers, and charging behavior led to the development of scenarios to inform program design. Looking 10 years into the future, we will also examine the projected efficacy of different program designs as compared to the unmanaged scenario.