POWER March 2020 - 32

ELECTRIFICATION
capacity. The actual increases for a specific
utility will depend on local EV penetration,
the extent to which EV charging
happens when or where the grid is already
constrained, and the mix of charging
infrastructure installed. "
Baker said utilities " in general " are
2. Most industry analysts agree that upgrades are needed to the transmission grid to handle
the increased load from EVs. Some, though, say that load could ultimately benefit the grid, making
it more efficient. Courtesy: Greenlots
to $3,500 per port to exceed CalGREEN
building code and install a minimum of
16,000 ports at new construction multiunit
dwellings. " The utility also offers
" apartment and government customers
a turnkey solution, " installing, owning,
and maintaining charging ports.
Andrew Dillon of West Monroe Partners,
a management and technology
consulting firm, told POWER that transportation
electrification presents a huge
opportunity for power generators. " When
you think about the large paradigm shift,
it's roughly $400 billion a year now going
to the fossil fuel industry as drivers
fill vehicles with gasoline. That's going to
transition into fueling all our vehicles with
Grid Upgrades
Tom Baker, managing director and partner
with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), told
POWER: " We expect that a representative
U.S. utility [with two to three million
customers and baseline electricity sales
of about 40,000 GWh], with 1.1 million
EVs in service by 2030 [roughly 15% of
all vehicles in such a utility's service area],
would need to invest between $1,700
and $5,800 in grid upgrades per electric
vehicle (EV) through 2030. Differences
in customer charging patterns, or the degree
to which charging happens when
and where the grid is constrained, drive
the range of grid upgrades needed.
" E-mobility will increase the demand
" When you think about the large paradigm
shift, it's roughly $400 billion a year now
going to the fossil fuel industry as drivers
fill vehicles with gasoline. That's going to
transition into fueling all our vehicles with
electricity. "
electricity, " Dillon said. " The second opportunity
is to engage customers. We've
seen that with solar, and the same thing
is happening here, for a variety of the EV
adoption patterns. It's very critical for the
utility to maintain a proactive relationship
with transit agencies, with C&I [commercial
and industrial] companies, to make
sure power [for charging] is available
when it's needed. "
32
" not yet " prepared for the loads EVs
will bring to the grid (Figure 2). " Many
utilities are taking the right first steps of
planning for grid expansions and building
the capabilities to shift new load to
times and places where the grid is best
equipped to handle it. Utilities should use
their network maps to identify where
grid requirements will be needed, create
a blueprint for investments, and prepare
the regulatory filings needed to recoup
their investments. "
Added Dillon: " With EVs, you'll see
a clustering effect. You could effectively
double the load of a feeder with EVs,
and those feeders weren't designed for
that. Utilities need to stay in close contact
with customers, to understand their
plans and their thinking. "
Itai Dadon, global head of Smart Cit-Andrew
Dillon, West Monroe Partners
for both energy and grid capacity, but we
expect the impact to be larger on grid
capacity than on energy, " Baker said.
" Assuming 15-20% of all vehicles in a
representative utility's service area are
EVs by 2030, and that the utility is somewhat
successful at optimizing when and
where EVs are charged, we expect a
5-10% increase in energy demand but
a 25-33% increase in demand for grid
www.powermag.com
ies for Itron, a technology company serving
the energy industry, told POWER
that utilities " are generally prepared to
support the extra load from EVs on the
grid. They are proactively taking steps to
develop charging infrastructure and are
also investing in hardening the grid to
support supply and distribution needed.
However, the ultimate vision is to incorporate
EVs as DERs [distributed energy
resources] in a highly dynamic smart grid
environment. This will require additional
investment in advanced grid orchestration.
There is also room for improvement
for utilities to improve the customer
experience around EV programs. This
includes new pricing programs to incentivize
customers to charge during times
and at specific locations that are ideal for
the grid operators. "
Ultimately, increasing EV adoption
means power generators must shift
gears to adapt to more change in the
evolving electricity landscape.
" EVs are a game changer for utilities,
but they will need to be active participants
in this new market in order to ensure that
these systems run efficiently and effectively, "
said Dadon. " Utilities will need to
partner with a provider that understands
how all of these systems can work together
and integrate. This goes beyond
technical integration. It requires proactive
engagement with consumers. " ■
-Darrell Proctor is a POWER
associate editor.
POWER | March 2020

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POWER March 2020

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