As more EVs, data centers, and other energy-intensive assets connect to the US power grid, utilities across the country face the prospect of making expensive upgrades to strained, aging infrastructure.
At the same time, there are efforts underway to leverage emerging technologies to help solve this conundrum––like vehicle-to-grid tech that promises to transform EVs into assets that can send electricity back to the grid when demand is high.
New research commissioned by software startup Rhythmos makes the case that another strategy, what it calls grid-edge EV charging optimization, could yield even more significant benefits in the quest to meet growing electricity demand while making the grid more resilient and reliable.
The white paper, assembled by consulting firm Energy and Environmental Economics (E3), suggests that this strategy could help utilities reduce transformer upgrade costs by as much as 60%, potentially yielding millions of dollars in savings and buying utilities more time to make infrastructure improvements.
“What that translates into is greater resilience, greater grid stability,” Rhythmos CEO Ken Munson told Tech Brew. “And that translates into lower energy rates for customers.”
Doing research: The study puts its findings into the context of rapid growth in EV adoption in recent years, with some 3.5 million light-duty EVs on US roadways at the end of 2023.
“As EV adoption accelerates, capacity constraints on distribution infrastructure will become acute, risking infrastructure reliability and requiring costly distribution upgrades that a 2021 study estimates could range from $7 billion to $47 billion by 2035 in the US under a high electrification scenario,” per the report.
In commissioning the research, Rhythmos set out to quantify the potential value of optimized managed EV charging. Previous research, Munson noted, assessed the impact of adding EVs to distribution grids: “But there was never really a study that went the next step and said, ‘Well, if there was optimization, and optimization did occur at the service transformer level or at other points on the distribution grid, what would the actual value be?’”
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E3’s study looked at three different EV charging scenarios: unmanaged, passively managed, and optimized, and then assessed them across utility service areas in two different regions in the US. It found that even passively managed charging strategies like implementing time-of-use rates could cut utility costs by about 30%.
Meanwhile, the report estimates that the average utility serving a quarter of a million customers could save approximately “7.3 million in avoided and deferred transformer upgrades” using grid-edge optimized charging.
Tech solutions: Rhythmos’ solution is its Cadency EdgeAI platform, which uses AI-powered data analytics to help utilities assess “when and where new loads and distributed energy resources (DERs)”––like EVs––come online on their systems. This data can help utilities “optimize against localized distribution constraints at the service transformer level,” according to Rhythmos.
“We’re creating visibility for the utility,” Munson said. “The net result is going to be that for a utility, they should see anywhere from two to two and a half times the ability to integrate electric vehicles onto the grid before additional modernization initiatives have to be engaged.”
The report also points out that various strategies can go hand-in-hand with one another to help shore up the grid.
“Systemwide and grid-edge optimization strategies can be applied in tandem to provide even greater cost reductions,” it states. “As EV adoption continues to grow, managed and optimized charging strategies will provide increasing value to mitigate grid impacts at both a systemwide and distribution level.”