| | DECEMBER - JANUARY8OPTIMIZEV HELPS SHAPE A CLEAN ENERGY FUTURESean K. Sullivan, Smart Grids Program Director, AVANGRIDByElectric vehicles (EV) are not a technology of the future: They are here now, and their popularity will increase for the foreseeable future. More EVs are necessary if we are going to meet our ambitious carbon-reduction goals. Like many other states, New York has aggressive EV adoption targets--aiming for 850,000 on the road by 2025 and 2 million by 2030. The federal government is following suit, with the Biden Administration creating an executive order that set a national goal of 50 percent of new car sales to be EVs by 2030.This exciting and rapid expansion of EVs can present a challenge for the electric utility. Significant growth in EV charging will lead to increased electrical load and, potentially, costly peak demand in the evening hours if EV charging is not carefully coordinated and managed. Electricity produced for peak demand is typically more expensive and is often generated by burning fossil fuels, depending on the wholesale market generation mix. As utilities in the U.S. prepare to handle the increased peak load due to EV adoption, the market in New York presented an exciting opportunity for AVANGRID's operating company, New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG), to pilot an innovative solution.Before the pilot, existing customer behavior meant that residents were inclined to charge their EVs during existing peak times, often plugging in when they returned home from work or school. Time of Use (TOU) rates are the existing default solution for most New York utilities to manage this late afternoon/early evening peak. However, as EV demand increases, using a TOU rate would simply shift that increased charging to the program-specific off-peak time when most owners would start to charge their vehicles, unintentionally creating a new peak as a result of increased demand.Sean K. SullivanIN MY OPINION IN MY OPINION
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