MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — While electric vehicles have the potential to help manage demand on the grid, a recent pilot study in Minnesota finds that's not likely to happen on its own.



"Consumers are charging when they get home from work out of habit and caution," said Tim Sullivan, the cooperative's president and CEO.


"We do see potential infrastructure issues due to clustering," Sullivan said. "It is a concern. In fact, we have already conducted high-level engineering reviews to determine what feeders and substations might be most impacted and what the upgrade costs might be."

Grid congestion increases in suburban areas because vehicle owners there drive "on average 80% farther daily than their urban counterparts," according to FleetCarma's Charge the North report. The organization bills the report as the largest study ever conducted vehicle charging.

Using data from its home base in Canada, FleetCarma found electric vehicle owners will charge later if they receive financial incentives to do so. Vehicle owners who lived in areas with "time of use" pricing that encouraged overnight charging tended to not plug in during peak hours. Only 2% to 4% of vehicle owners in Ontario and Québec charged during peak hours, with at least seven of 10 plugging in after midnight.



A standard electric vehicle battery requires roughly 30 kWh to achieve a 100-mile charge. Wright-Hennepin Electric's rates would range from $6 on-peak for a charge to $1.80 overnight for a full charge.


Another reason the cooperative wants overnight charging is to avoid high demand charges. Power producers assess commercial and industrial customers' demand fees in addition to their monthly bills for electric consumption. Utilities base the charge on the highest amount of power a customer draws in 15 minutes during a billing cycle.



Despite the pilot being relatively small, the results led Wright-Hennepin to invest in ZEF Energy, the largest independently owned fast-charging company in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The cooperative, which has made investments in other companies, liked the technology embedded in ZEF's chargers that allows utilities to control charging times, Sullivan said.

"We see it as a natural partnership because they like what we're doing, and they need the technology anyway, and they see other co-ops will need it too," said Matthew Blackler, CEO and founder of ZEF.


The project will help Great River Energy's members plan for more electric vehicles and decide whether they need infrastructure upgrades. "At the moment they don't know" what the impact of electric vehicles on their systems will be, Blackler said.

Cooperative customers may be more inclined to take advantage of time-of-use rates because they are accustomed to them. Cooperatives have offered time-of-use programs for decades, said Jeff Haase, Great River Energy's head of member technology and innovation.

"We have a lot of members enrolled in these programs, and we're using them to move load daily," he said. "I think this will help with the adoption of overnight programs by EV owners. They're similar programs. We'll be able to offer a price signal to customers and reduce infrastructure investments to cover demand during peak hours. That's the ultimate goal."
Incorporating technology that allows delayed charging is "incredibly important," Haase added. "It guarantees those kilowatt-hours and energy consumption is being put on at the most advantageous time."

Sullivan agrees. Overnight charging "benefits consumers because they come out ahead financially, it helps us manage our load, and it helps the environment," he said.