SAN DIEGO, June 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- San Diego Gas
& Electric (SDG&E) and groups representing environmental,
environmental justice, electric vehicle service providers,
automakers and labor signed a settlement agreement in support of
SDG&E's innovative Electric Vehicle Grid-Integration pilot
project. The pilot calls for SDG&E to install electric vehicle
(EV) charging infrastructure at up to 550 sites throughout the
utility's service territory and offer special rates to encourage
charging at optimal times for the grid. These diverse organizations
have come together to make this pilot program a key step in meeting
Governor Jerry Brown's goal of
having 1.5 million zero emission vehicles on California roads by
2025.
"We are very pleased to enter into this agreement with such a
diverse group of stakeholders all working together to promote clean
electric vehicles," said Jim Avery,
SDG&E's senior vice president for power supply. "More than 50
percent of SDG&E's residential customers live in multi-family
communities, where only a small fraction currently has access to
charging. To ensure charging is accessible to all customers, our
pilot will address gaps like this in the market."
The settlement agreement supporting the EV pilot was signed by a
wide variety of stakeholders, including SDG&E, the Natural
Resources Defense Council, the Environmental Defense Fund, the
Sierra Club, California Coalition of Utility Employees, the
Greenlining Institute, ChargePoint Inc, NRG EV Services LLC, Smart
Grid Services Siemens AG, Plug in America, General Motors,
Honda Motors, Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, KN Grid,
CALSTART, the Center for Sustainable Energy and the Green
Power Institute. The agreement was submitted to the California
Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) today. The CPUC will review the
agreement and is expected to issue a final decision later this
year.
The agreement calls for SDG&E to install charging
infrastructure at up to 550 business and multi-family locations
throughout its service territory, with 10 chargers at each location
for a total of 5,500 separate chargers. Building owners and
managers would have a choice of grid-integrated rate options and
equipment, promoting competition and market growth in this nascent
industry. SDG&E would install at least 10 percent of the
chargers in economically disadvantaged communities to expand access
to clean EVs in these underserved areas. The pilot will feature
special rates that encourage EV customers to lower their fueling
costs by charging their cars when electricity supply, including
renewable energy is plentiful and energy prices are low. With rates
encouraging off-peak charging, vehicles would be efficiently
integrated onto the grid, helping to avoid on-peak charging that
drives the need to build more power plants and other electrical
infrastructure.
The San Diego region is already
a leader on the road to a clean transportation future and is home
to more than 16,000 plug-in EVs, which is one of the largest
concentrations in the country. However, EV growth needs to step up
at a much quicker pace to meet Governor Jerry Brown's call for 1.5 million electric
vehicles by 2025. SDG&E's Vehicle-Grid Integration pilot offers
a model for combined effort between the public and private sectors,
leveraging the unique skills of all the participants, to install
the necessary infrastructure to help meet the Governor's
transportation and climate goals. This partnership is crucial to
developing a comprehensive network of readily available charging
stations, which will reassure California's EV drivers that they will have a
place to charge their vehicles. It will support efforts to fight
climate change, as the transportation sector currently creates
approximately 40% of the state's greenhouse gas emissions, whereas
clean EVs are emissions-free.
The Vehicle Grid Integration pilot creates a powerful engine of
growth for electric vehicles, protecting the environment, ensuring
safe and reliable service, promoting innovation and helping the
state advance to a clean transportation future. SDG&E looks
forward to working with its partners and the CPUC to make the pilot
a reality for local residents.
SDG&E is a regulated public utility that provides safe and
reliable energy service to 3.4 million consumers through 1.4
million electric meters and 868,000 natural gas meters in
San Diego and southern
Orange counties. The utility's
area spans 4,100 square miles. SDG&E is committed to
creating ways to help customers save energy and money every
day. SDG&E is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), a
Fortune 500 energy services holding company based in San Diego. Connect with SDG&E's Customer
Contact Center at 800-411-7343, on Twitter (@SDGE) and
Facebook.
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SOURCE San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)