In March, two ongoing projects coordinated through the EV working group came to fruition. First, we published an issue paper on Near-Term Grid Investments for Integrating Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure. A huge thank you all members of the working group who helped develop and finalize the paper through discussions and written feedback. The final result is informative, brief, and demonstrates our collective members experience in the field.
GridWise also hosted a workshop this past Monday on the Grid Integration of EV Charging Infrastructure. See a summary of themes and take-aways here.
This workshop convened members from the GridWise Alliance (GWA), the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO), the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC). Over two hours, both GridWise speakers and policymakers explored electric grid considerations related to EV infrastructure investment. Some topics you’ll hear about during the workshop include:
- Comments from the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation on their electric vehicle programs
- Highlights from GridWise’s EV issue paper linked above
- Industry insights on innovative technology solutions
- Overview of EV charging infrastructure, hardware and software components, and importance of service and maintenance
- Needs and challenges with EV charging infrastructure standards, communications, and protocols
- Grid-as-a-platform for EV integration and DER/EV management roadmap and solutions
- Utility perspectives on EV charging infrastructure deployment
- Overview of integration of EVs to the modern utility grid
- The role of EV highway fast charging, electric demand of highway charging plazas compared to other users, a case study from the UK, and the importance of aligning infrastructure timelines with electrification roadmaps
- Case study of fast charger demand along a rural highway, overview of utility demand charges, and possible solutions
- State perspectives on grid-EV challenges
- Ongoing efforts and top of mind challenges from state policymakers from the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the Illinois Commerce Commission, and the Colorado Energy Office
Thank you to the GridWise members who spoke during the workshop and shared their expertise! Members can access and watch the meeting recording and slides. We encourage you to share these resources with any colleagues you think may find them useful. Other ongoing efforts include the continued coordination of a capstone course project on fleet electrification run by a group of George Washington University graduate students and initial concept development of the Technology Portfolio website.
The Resilience working group had it second meeting this month. Given that the GridWise second quarter theme is grid resiliency, the group discussed potential topics for Policy and Technology Council meetings. We’re also working on developing questions to submit to DOE on the $11 billion in IIJA funding for grid resiliency related programs. Please reach out to Josh Steinhardt at jsteinhardt@gridwise.org if you’d like to be added to either working group.