August 11
EPRI Launches Initiative to Ready Grid for EVs
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Member News
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) launched on Monday a three-year initiative to manage the expected grid stress from increased electric vehicle charging, with collaborators like Amazon joining the program since it was announced in April. The program, EVs2Scale2030, is working on a mapping platform that can “zoom down to the feeder level” to provide granular data to utilities about EV and charging deployments.
Virtual Peaker, a cloud-based SaaS company, launched its electric vehicle managed charging solution, providing a holistic distributed energy resource (DER) platform designed to help utilities harness the collective energy of all DERs in one end-to-end platform. According to a recent EEI report, EVs will account for nearly 30 percent of the U.S. passenger vehicle sales market by 2030.
The NC Clean Energy Technology Center (NCCETC) released its Q2 2023 Edition of The 50 States of Grid Modernization. The quarterly series provides insights on state regulatory and legislative discussions and actions on grid modernization, utility business model and rate reform, energy storage, microgrids and demand response. The report finds that all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, took actions related to grid modernization during Q2 2023.
Working together, ComEd and solar developer Pivot Energy this week finished work on a community solar project in Kankakee, Illinois with plans to generate more than 990,000 kWh there per year. At that level, it should be able to suit the needs of nearly 100 average Illinois homes, saving a bit of money while expanding cleaner energy offerings.
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Industry News
General Motors will offer bidirectional charging capability for its Ultium-based electric vehicles by 2026. The vehicle-to-home charging technology will be available to residential customers through the automaker’s subsidiary GM Energy. The first EVs equipped with the bidirectional charging technology include the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado pickup, Equinox and Blazer, as well as the GMC Sierra EV Denali Edition 1, Cadillac LYRIQ and upcoming Escalade IQ.
Tesla’s recent investment in wireless charging for electric vehicles marks a major vote of confidence for this nascent but potentially transformative technology. The pioneering electric automaker recently bought German startup Wiferion, as reported July 31 in German-language outlet Teslamag and recirculated among the Tesla-minded blogosphere.
A new electric vehicle incentive program launched this week as part of a joint effort between Entergy New Orleans and Sagewell floating monthly credits for 350 customers who charge their vehicles in off-peak hours. The Bring Your Own Charger program encourages EV owners to program and charge their vehicles during preset hours, which Sagewell’s software algorithms will confirm in conjunction with advanced meter data.
Chicago is committing $15 million to help lower-income residents decarbonize their buildings, through grants for electric stoves, heat pumps and energy efficiency measures. The city recently issued a request for proposals for organizations to carry out the initiative, part of larger efforts to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of buildings and curb the health and environmental justice impact of indoor gas pollution and escalating gas bills.
