October 18
New Report Surveys State of EV Smart Charge Management
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
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Two national laboratories, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, recently surveyed the national state of smart charge management for electric vehicles across the United States. Smart charge management is “intelligently managing the flow of electricity that charges electric vehicles,” NREL notes.
On Monday, Jackson, Michigan-based Consumers Energy announced it was launching an initiative to install electric vehicle (EV) chargers at workplaces across Michigan. Consumers Energy said the initiative is part of its efforts to expand EV charging throughout the state and that it expects more than 500 workplaces will have EV charging by 2030.
Last weekend, Hurricane Helene left a path of destruction from Florida up the east coast, leaving cities in Georgia and the Carolinas underwater. Nearly a week later, and still around 1M customers are still without power, with power lines down, poles destroyed, and substations literally submerged. Climate change has driven this volatility in extreme weather events, impacting more Americans than ever.
ComEd announced it was launching an all-in-one resource to help customers who are considering switching from a traditional furnace to electric heat pumps. The new Go Electric site will provide customers with information about the benefits of heat pump technology at home, including pricing and incentives, and how to locate trained contractors.
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Industry News
In the lawn-care aisle at Home Depot, alongside traditional gas mowers and leaf blowers, you’ll also find battery-powered versions – for roughly the same price, or even less. An increasing number of states and municipalities are encouraging their residents to go for these emission-free, electric options and leave the gas tools behind, as a new map from PIRG shows.
General Motors Co. subsidiary GM Energy has expanded its residential charging product offerings with the launch of the GM Energy PowerBank stationary energy storage unit, which allows its EV customers to store and transfer energy from the grid. The PowerBank is available with a 10.6 kWh or 17.7 kWh storage capacity and can provide power to a home during an outage or help to offset higher electricity rates during peak times.
The California Energy Commission’s Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) program has successfully enrolled 515 MW of capacity, with over 265,000 participants contributing to the state’s efforts. Launched in August 2022, the DSGS program is part of California’s Strategic Reliability Reserve of backup energy resources that are meant to serve as insurance when the power grid is strained during extreme events.
Adequate resources exist to serve the forecasted demand for electricity this winter under normal conditions, though reserve margins continue, according to PJM Interconnection in its recent winter outlook. As the grid operator for 13 states and the District of Columbia, PJM said it expects to have roughly 179,800 MW of resources to meet the forecasted peak demand of about 141,200 MW.
