Charging Infrastructure Forum Recap

Charging Infrastructure
Moderator: Dr. Russell Lefevre
Speakers:
Justin Murrill, AMD
Blake Dickenson, AeroVironment, Dir customer service
Rachel May, Austin Energy

United States' Goal = 1 million Electric Vehicles (EV) on US roads by 2015

Blake Dickenson of AeroVironment (AV)– Charging Infrastructure Roll-Out. AV manufacturers Energy technologies and Unmanned Aircraft systems.
AV has 20 years of battery charging experience. They promote EV level 2 public charging.
Patent pending in energy storage – battery space system such as apartment complex charging.
EVSE – Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment. Must be UL – listed. Connectors are not live until fully connected and communicating to the car. Common connector for Level 1 and 2 ….doing away with multi-standard connectors for obvious reasons.
AV is doing a lot of residential installs today: site assessment (mostly on-line) – Customer Portal – Installation- EVSE Service/Diagnostic tool (charging units are coming out far earlier than cars are arriving on the market) – Customer Training –
Thoughts on Special EV Rates encouraging off-peak charging
Many utilities are making it expensive by dropping a second meter (adding thousands of dollars to installation costs)
EVSE as a sub-meter – no additional costs.
Issues AV running into:
1. Permit and inspection issues from the cities; inconsistency of municipalities. Public process and red tape is slowing down permit process. Oregon is a good example of successful permitting. Statewide permitting process.

What is the future: EV Ecosystem:
Commercial
Residential

NRG EvGo expanding using their “freedom Stations” started in Houston and expanding out throughout Texas.
Using a “subscription service” offset from your home utility bill

Speaker Justin Murrill. AMD Global Sustaining Manager.
AMD is focused on charging at the workplace.
AMD started installing stations 5 month ago, well before release of EV’s. AMD
63% want EV’s but want their employer to provide charging stations.
Commitment to environment
Federal pilot installation project.
Federal Tax credits.
13 early city adoption of charging Stations.
AMD is committed to jumpstarting the EV market.

Challenges:
Unknown station use
Rate of market adoption uncertain
Increased AMD energy use – which proved nominal
Loss of high demand parking
EV availability still limited.
Next steps:
Continue promoting availability to our employees, vehicle options and government rebates
Monitor station use and emission savings

Rachel May, Austin Energy, Sr. Research Analyst. Emerging Transportation Technologies.
Content of program to get charging infrastructure out to home within 1-2 years.
Austin Energy preparing for 36,000 PEV charging in Austin area.
The concern for energy is the clustering issue of several charges occurring at the same time (in same neighborhood) which impacts transformer with the potential of costly electric grid upgrades.
2 programs:
PIP Plug in Partners rebate program up to 1500 toward purchase/install of level 2 CS.
Home charge mgmt pilot
PEV communication – w/ vehicle, with EVSE between appliances.
Plug In Everywhere" is the public charging focus.
Home charging will meet most of driver’s daily needs.
So why need public charging? Convenience factor. Belongs where you get your groceries, where people are congregating; soccer games, bar/restaurants.
Austin partnering with Coulomb Charging stations.
Working with community by offering free CS availability, free to station host,
Focus at hotels, hospitals tech campuses, property owners, national retailers.
Austin’s goal is that no EV driver will be more than 5 miles from a public charger. Austin’s goal to provide access to all charging stations with a single card.

Overview of this Forum: Very informative from a 500 foot level view of Charging Stations and infrastructure rolling out within the next few years. The focus is on both residential and public charging – residential being the priority focus as the majority of EV charging will occur at the home. Speakers also discussed the advantages and challenges and costs faced by charging companies and utilities.
-Gary Perman