Electric vehicle impacts on the utility
Rates, stakeholders, staffing, customer experience
For those of you who didn't catch our successful webinar on Jan. 6 on the nascent electric vehicle industry, you can replay the audio here and/or download the slides. If you're still pressed for time and would like highlights, please read the column I initially wrote afterwards, "Electric Vehicles and Smart Grid Integration: Insights from San Diego, Detroit and Houston."
When I listened back to the question-and-answer portion of the webinar, however, it was clear to me that readers might benefit from a synopsis of some of the utility impacts being discussed. That's particularly true with rate design, stakeholder outreach and supporting the customer experience, thus the following column.
Intelligent Utility Daily: San Diego Gas & Electric's (SDG&E's) "experimental" rates will run one year before review. NRG EV Services' eVgo brand's rates are locked in for three years. What metrics will you watch to judge success? What are the risks in these two pricing models?
"The major metric we'll look at is the percentage of on-peak versus off-peak charging across our three different rates," answered SDG&E's Chris Chen, who focuses primarily on developing the EV business case. "We're not really looking at the value of the business model at this point. We're looking at the impact of varying rates on charging behavior. We'll keep the ones that drive charging off-peak."
Intelligent Utility Daily: Sounds like eVgo extends the gamble to a three-year risk. What will you look at in terms of rates that will reflect whether your business model is working?
"First off, in 2011 and 2012, it will be a supply-constrained market," answered Arun Banskota, president of NRG EV Services, the backer of the eVgo brand. "There will be a total of 10,000 Nissan Leafs and 10,000 Chevy Volts in 2011 and probably slightly more in 2012. So the pricing risk is not huge for us. We want to give EV consumers the confidence of knowing their rates will remain steady for at least three years. There is research showing that 80 percent, 90 percent of charging will take place at home, at night, during off-peak hours. Public infrastructure is more of an insurance policy, to drive EV ('range confidence' and) adoption."
Intelligent Utility Daily: In Detroit, some EV-related stakeholders are new to DTE, right?
"We've had ongoing dialogues with electrical contractors and inspectors, so already we have pretty good relations with those groups," said Jeff LeBrun, who is on DTE Energy's electric transportation and infrastructure team. "The auto manufacturers, obviously, are large customers of ours. The new piece is working with the dealerships to be sure that our piece comes into play. We hope that with the rates we offer and the EVSE installation approach we're taking, maybe we're not the primary reason someone buys an EV, but perhaps we make it easier for the customer to make that decision."
Intelligent Utility Daily: When I take possession of my EV in San Diego or Detroit, what's already happened and what happens next?
"By the time you get your vehicle you've contacted the utility, let us know you're getting an EV and signed up for one of our EV rates," Chen said. "Nissan, for instance, has an installer who can install that charging system in your home. They go through the permitting process, which we've tried to streamline. We have a special group at the utility to take care of anything we need to do to ensure installation goes as quickly.
"If the customer chooses not to be part of the pricing experiment, they'll use their existing meters. If they're part of the pricing experiment, then to capture the consumption of the vehicle, we'll put a second meter on the home."
Intelligent Utility Daily: That differs from DTE, which will install second meters for all EV owners, right? I know you've talked with electrical inspectors to help facilitate speed.
"Our process is similar to San Diego's," said LeBrun. "From the electrical inspector standpoint, that's kind of an 'X factor.' It can take anywhere from one to two days to as long as 30 to 60 days. The honest answer is that, through no fault of the inspectors, their staffs have seen cutbacks. We have a large territory and some of the rural areas have only one inspector working one day a week for four or five townships. In one of our major cities, the inspection staff of 10 has been cut to three. Hopefully we can help them by getting information to them as quickly as possible."
Intelligent Utility Daily: So the recession has impacted electrical inspectors. If EV adoption takes off in three, five, even ten years, have you determined staff needed to support the customer experience?
"In our regulatory filings, we've substantially increased our customer support side," SDG&E's Chen said. "We've made some assumptions based on our forecasts for adoption and included those in our regulatory filings."
"It's challenging," said LeBrun. "We haven't included our projections in a filing yet. We've had many internal meetings on what we'll need. And I'll be honest, you can count on one hand how large our EV team is right now. We do recognize that if the EV numbers get to where they potentially could in the next five to ten years, we'll address with more staff."
Phil Carson
Editor-in-chief
Intelligent Utility Daily
pcarson@energycentral.com
303-228-4757
