Increasing Adoption And Value Of Plug-In Electric Vehicles Through Utilities

US based Austin Energy is one of the largest publicly owned electric utilities that provides low-cost reliable power to more than 448,000 customers. Karl leads Austin Energy's emerging technologies & electric vehicle teams along with handling the renewable, energy storage, and mobility department.

- Karl Popham

Pug-In Electric Vehicle (PEV) adoption has been growing at a rapid pace in the U.S. from a few thousand in 2011 to over 400,000 PEVs on U.S. roads today and 1 million globally. In Austin we have seen a steady 200-300 percent annual growth curve year over year during this timeframe.

PEVs are a tremendous revenue and growth opportunity for utilities. Here in Austin if every driver chose a PEV, it would basically double the load and potential revenue from our residential sector. Unlike our top residential load today, air conditioning, there is a lot more flexibility from PEVs for off-peak and smart charging innovations.

In addition to the obvious revenue stream for utilities, it is important to capture other community benefits to include zero tail-pipe emissions for cleaner air, quieter cars for reduced noise pollution, fewer overall CO2 emissions especially when paired with renewable energy, and fuel independence from petroleum imports.

Over the last five years of our program, here are some of the actions we have taken and that other utilities can act on today to increase PEV value and adoption:

1. Identify and Engage Policy Innovators–A key resource for implementing our PEV programs has been working closely with policy innovators. The Austin City Council has passed several ordinances over the years in support of maximizing the community benefit and demonstrating leadership for transportation electrification. These have included everything from tariffs for flat fee public charging, protecting EV charging stations from gas vehicles, setting city fleet goals, and a community vision to a zero emissions future.