Electric Cars and Utilities: Are You Ready for the EV Revolution?
This guest post is brought to you by SmartWorks.
2021 will go down in history as an inflection point for electric vehicles, according to market intelligence firm Guidehouse Insights. They state that in the US, nearly as many plug-in electric vehicles were sold in the first half of 2021 as the entire 2020 sales total, with growth driven by EV technology innovations, incentives, policies, and vehicle availability. In North America, sales are expected to grow from roughly 599,000 in 2021 to over 6.3 million by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 30%. Every major automaker has pledged to shift to electric-only or majority-electric line-ups.
To address the future need to power electric vehicles, the White House recently announced a US$15 billion investment in EV charging stations as part of a clean energy pledge to ensure drivers won’t be left without a place to plug into throughout the United States.
However, 85% of private electric vehicle charging currently takes place at home. So while public charging infrastructure is critical to EV adoption, the most significant impact on the utility remains home-based charging. Utilities are already gearing up to support EV owners, with rebates for charging equipment or TOU rates explicitly designed for vehicle charging.
In spite of that, many EVs remain unknown to utilities. Utilities need better data on numbers of EV’s, their charging load versus capacity, and the risks they pose to grid reliability and energy generation or procurement planning. Then there are the additional challenges of understanding public charging load and commercial fleet electrification.
Enter NorthStar’s sister division, SmartWorks. SmartWorks provides meter data management, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence that can be packaged with the NorthStar CIS or added later. The functionality is designed to address specific customer service, distribution, or conservation challenges. Solutions are deployed surgically and integrated seamlessly with the CIS and other systems to streamline utility processes without over-burdening users.
SmartWorks is currently working on an electric vehicle analytics solution, including detecting EVs that may not be known to the utility and calculating usage for vehicle charging, potentially eliminating the need for sub-metering on chargers. Also being addressed are analyses to understand the current penetration and future growth of EV adoption, so you can ensure you’re ready for this massive change in load and rationalize it with future renewable sources and storage.
This solution will be integrated with NorthStar customer-facing web portal solutions to allow customers to confirm electric vehicle activity and receive cost-saving suggestions.
Why SmartWorks is Investing in EV Analytics:
Know the exact impact of EVs, operationally & financially.
Optimize incentives and streamline billing for EV rates.
Understand the impact of future EV growth.
Identify your risks with what-if scenarios to combat these situations.
What if you knew:
how many EVs you really have in your territory?
how much revenue you’re getting from charging at home? An how it’s predicted to grow?
where EV charging is causing reliability hotspots? And where the future hotspots will arise as more people buy EVs?
What if you could:
calculate EV charging usage just from the household main meter?
offer charging incentives without requiring customers to install submeters?
promote incentives or rates to the right customers, to have them charge at specific times?
What is you had total visibility:
into how EVs are going to affect your operations and your business into the future?
The EV revolution is coming now and it’s coming fast. It will impact your distribution network and your procurement plan. The question is: are you ready?
If you are interested in learning more about SmartWorks EV analytics, we would be delighted to hear from you. Click on the “Learn More” button below to send us an email.