WASHINGTON, July 31,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The electrification of the
U.S. transportation sector is an unprecedented challenge and
collaboration will be critical to meet future electric vehicle (EV)
needs, EPRI Director of Transportation Britta Gross testified today before the
U.S. Senate Budget Committee.
The U.S. government has a goal that half of new vehicle sales
will be electric by 2030. To date, the 5.2 million EVs on U.S.
roads today have added approximately 18 terawatt-hours of energy
demand—largely unnoticed, Gross explained. "If the appropriate
investments are enabled, the grid can support this transition," she
said.
Last year, EPRI launched EVs2Scale2030™, a three-year initiative
including energy companies, fleet operators, auto and truck
manufacturers, and charging providers, in coordination with federal
agencies and national labs, to accelerate the grid interconnection
of EV charging infrastructure.
As Gross explained to the committee, there are several
challenges to greater EV infrastructure integration implementation,
including:
- Timing: While a fleet operator today can order a dozen
heavy-duty electric trucks for delivery in four to six months, the
time it takes to bring additional power to that site to serve
vehicle charging could range from 18 months to several years if
grid upgrades are needed. "This longer lead time for the grid
upgrades means the utility sector already needs to begin planning
today for the transportation loads expected over the next 5-10
years," she said.
- Market complexity: As Gross explained, "There are over
3,000 utilities (including investor-owned utilities,
public/municipal utilities, and rural cooperatives) and tens of
thousands of fleet operators who have seldom had to deal with
electric utilities. This means a fleet operator or a charging
property developer with hundreds of sites nationwide has to be able
to identify the right utility to begin planning efforts and then
figure out how to apply for service when utilities all use
different processes, application forms, differing questions, and
different levels of detail required in their applications."
EPRI's publicly available eRoadMAP™ tool
provides a visualization of when and where EV loads are expected on
the grid at the distribution feeder level, which allows key
industry stakeholders the ability to prioritize and plan years
ahead for grid investments. To help address market complexity, EPRI
is also developing an online data exchange
platform—GridFAST™—that customers with transportation
projects can use to automate the process of identifying and
connecting with utilities to begin early project planning and apply
for service through a common service application form. The platform
is expected to be available by the end of this year.
"To address these transportation-specific challenges and pain
points, key industries have to work together with utilities in
unprecedented ways to share their electrification plans earlier
with utilities – and utility regulators – so that there is advance
knowledge of where and when loads will show up on the distribution
system. This…is critical for investment planning and accelerating
grid interconnections for customers, while utilities also balance
the need to ensure they continue to provide reliable electrical
service to the broader public across all loads," Gross
concluded.
Read a copy of Gross's prepared testimony here. To learn more
about EPRI's EVs2Scale2030 work, visit EVs2Scale2030 | EPRI Micro
Sites .
Contact
Rachel Gantz
Senior Manager of Corporate Media Relations
202-293-7517
rgantz@epri.com
About EPRI
Founded in 1972, EPRI is the world's preeminent independent,
non-profit energy research and development organization, with
offices around the world. EPRI's trusted experts collaborate with
more than 450 companies in 45 countries, driving innovation to
ensure the public has clean, safe, reliable, affordable, and
equitable access to electricity across the globe. Together…shaping
the future of energy.®
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