More Utilities Offering Electric Vehicle Charging
Posted August 11, 2010 at 12:44 pm 
Filed in: California pioneered in these measures, with San Diego Gas & Electric already offering several rates based on when in the day people charge their cars, with the lowest rates being the ones overnight. Also, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (San Francisco) put forth the Experimental Time-of-Use Low Emission Vehicle rate, a special discounted rate for their EV customers.
These initiatives have continued to expand elsewhere in the country, with Detroit Edison Company’s (DE) new experimental rate for residential customers as the latest one. This electric utility, which serves most of Southeast Michigan, has an important role in the deployment of EVs, as they have been working closely with General Motors on the development of the Chevy Volt. The rate — the first of its type in the state — was approved last Tuesday by the Michigan Public Service Commission, and will be available beginning August 11th.
“The program … will help DE evaluate the effect of EVs on its electric system, offers off-peak rates that customers can use to charge vehicles, and offers the infrastructure required to charge these vehicles”, said Edward Falletich, DE’s pricing manager.
DE’s plan will benefit 2,500 residential customers who will have their vehicle’s electricity usage tracked and will be able to choose from two possible rates: A $40 flat monthly fee – initially limited to 250 customers – or a lower rate for charging the vehicle during off-peak hours – hours other than between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m, Monday through Friday. DE will also offer a $2,500 incentive for a separate meter (which tracks vehicle charging) and a high-voltage charger, thus diminishing part of the customers’ burden when purchasing an EV.
Not only does this plan offers DE the possibility of learning about EV drivers’ charging habits, as well as the demands EVs will place on the grid, but it is also expected to help in inducing consumers to charge their plug-in cars overnight. “When you take into account how the electricity grid is underutilized at night, there is very large capacity for charging at night,” said Marcus Alexander, manager of vehicle systems analysis for the Electric Power Research Institute.
Source: Idaho National Laboratory. Department of Energy, Vehicle Technologies Program.
As shown in the figure above, depending on car mileage and electricity price assumptions, EVs function at lower costs per mile than conventional gasoline-powered vehicles. Plans like those mentioned above, aimed at promoting off-peak charging, offer numerous advantages including: additional energy cost savings to PHEV/EV owners, testing and data collection of the charging process to support more widespread roll-outs, maximize the life of their car’s batteries (research indicates that charging your battery near to the time you will use it significantly extends the life and health of the battery), and encouraging more efficient use of power plant capacity (which eliminates the need to add additional capacity to our system and might also reduce the average cost of electricity for all customers).
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