This Planning Guide describes a step-by-step process to assess electric vehicle (EV) market conditions, forecast demand for EV adoption and EV charging infrastructure needs, understand EV impacts to overall utility load, and evaluate the financial impact from EV program options. The intended audience for this guide is staff at municipal utilities and community choice aggregation entities who are looking for ways to responsibly participate in the expanding EV market. The Guide is designed as a resource for capacity constrained local utilities that want to act, but do not have the time to start from scratch.
As a contractor to the EPA, Fosterra created this Guide in collaboration with EPA Region 9 staff and based the process steps on a detailed initial deployment of this approach with MCE Clean Energy. The EV and EVSE market is dynamic and rapidly growing, so the guidance provided should be used as a starting point for program planning, recognizing that each organization will have its own unique circumstances, needs, and resources.
This report is provided as a case study for an EPA-funded project to support MCE Clean Energy’s efforts for encouraging faster adoption of electric vehicle infrastructure. The report has been edited and redacted to remove any sensitive details. The deliverable for Task 1 includes the evaluation of adoption trends across MCE territory, analyzing electric vehicle (EV) purchases and installed electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), then forecasting potential adoption over the next five years (through 2022).
The deliverable for Task 2 encompasses a review of existing EVSE programs from across California and in selected regions outside the state including at IOUs,Municipal Utilities, Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs), and other institutions to determine lessons learned and successes.
Task 3 provides a more in-depth estimation of the charging load that is driven by the current level of electric vehicle adoption across MCE territory based on data that was developed in Task 1. The deliverable includes modeling for total EV electrical load across the MCE service area and by vehicle and charging ports along with their average charge times based on available data, recent reports, and research.