Power to the People: EV Charging as asset to the Grid
Grid Edge Integration & Consumer Engagement at Distributech 2016
Distributech is the largest energy transmission and distribution conference in the US. Its massive conference floors showcase booths that can easily span 1000 square feet (100 square meters).
As I witnessed from this year’s conference, things are changing fast for power distribution. Rapid innovations of hardware and communications are transforming the structure of the electricity system, now reflected in buzzwords such as #DER #gridedge #microgrid #disruption. You name it and it’s on display at Distributech.
So what exactly changed in the ways we distribute and consume energy? It is no longer a one way street from the power plant, via a transmission grid, to the distribution grid, into your home or workplace. Instead, it has become an integrated system like never before. Consumers have become producers themselves, thanks to solar panels on their roofs that feed their surplus energy onto the grid. Wind power supplies clean energy, but wind is also difficult to predict and should be supplemented (often by other resources).
The consumption of energy has faced change too. Increasing welfare has led to more air-conditioned buildings (New York City alone, already has 8 million A/Cs), which create congestion problems on the grid. Of course, there is our bread and butter — the electric vehicle, which can be both a constraint and relief to the grid. Constraining the grid and its operator when cars charge at peak moments, or relieving when cars charge at night and/or using primarily solar power.
Industry giants like Siemens and GE, as well as newcomers like Smarter Grid Solutions, all want to optimally integrate distributed energy resources onto the grid. There are hurdles however, from a technical and customer’s point of view.
In the past, utility companies never had to deal directly with their end-customers. Supplying electricity and sending the bill were basically as far as they got in terms of consumer engagement.
Today, by communicating (either with a nice nudge or a price signal) directly with the end-customer, utility and service providers are able to change the demand for electricity at set times. By doing this, these providers can now optimize supply and demand and avoid expensive upgrades to the electricity grid.
Californian EV charging programs include time-of-use* pricing
The Californian Public Utility Commission recently approved both South California Edison (SCE) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)’s EV Charging pilot programs. SCE program has approved the installation of 1.500 chargers, SDG&E is looking at 4.000 chargers. In both programs, the EV charger is ought to reduce its load at peak moments. At EV-Box, we have incorporated this already at … chargers for over three years. Initially, this so-called Load Balancing service is designed to avoid overdrawing the local circuit board, as well as to avoid expensive building upgrades and overcapacity fees. Interestingly, the same control system can be used to respond to price signals. These price signals can make sure to motivate EV drivers to charge their cars during those moments of the day when there are no grid constraints.
Why is time-of-use pricing so important to Californian utilities? Well, California is a leader in solar panel adoption. Yet combining this with high temperatures, this leads to frequent A/C usage, which creates an electricity load curve, dubbed the ‘duck curve’:
With an increase of the amount of solar panels, energy consumption from the grid during the day decreases, until 6 PM when the sun is setting. However, temperatures are still very high around that time, so air conditioning usage reaches a peak in demand for electricity.
This is why many utilities now have shifted their focus onto customer engagement. If they make sure that people change their consumption behaviors, they do not have to upgrade the grid — a pricey investment, especially taking into account that it is only utilized 3% of the time.
With time-of-use rates, utilities hope to motivate EV drivers to charge at times that are beneficial to the grid. Beneficial times are for instance the moments when there is an abundance of sun, or when not many people are using electric appliances. Our experience within Europe, and our flexibility to work with several back-office service providers that suit your specific business/EV needs, make EV-Box an ideal partner in EV Charging programs of Californian utility companies and beyond.
