Pacific Power Plans to Electrify Transportation in Oregon
Posted on February 18, 2020 by Sudeshna Pal
Tags, Energy
Earlier this month, Pacific Power presented its Transportation Electrification (TE) Plan for Oregon. The plan is drafted in compliance with the Oregon Public Utility Commission’s (PUC) Order no. 19-134, which requires electric utilities in Oregon to present a plan to accelerate electric vehicle (EV) adoption in their service territories. The order is primarily driven by SB 1547 (the Clean Electricity and Coal Transition Act), Oregon’s state goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and SB 1044’s goal to ensure at least 250,000 EVs are registered in Oregon by the year 2025.
Pacific Power’s EV Plan identifies the market’s existing barriers, and also outlines the utility’s plans to try to manage the new load that would join its system as more customers adopt EVs. The utility had an estimated 5,600 EVs in its service area at the end of 2019, forecast to grow to 26,630 by the end of 2025. By contrast, Portland General Electric expects to have 99,000 EVs in its more urban service territory by 2025.
Pacific Power’s plan to overcome market barriers assigns to the utility several intervention strategies. The utility plans to reduce up-front and operational costs of EV ownership, ensure stability and certainty of market development (by setting binding EV deployment targets), improve access and economic viability of charging, and increase customer awareness. Pacific Power also plans to propel EV adoption in low-income and disadvantaged communities in outlying urban and rural areas. These areas face additional barriers to EV adoption that the utility hopes to overcome by providing shared and pooled EV opportunities.
CUB has long held that new EV load can bring immense benefits to a utility’s system. The utility would benefit from the increased revenue, and customers would benefit from lower carbon emissions and lower electricity costs in the long term, as EVs can integrate renewables at a low cost. Therefore, CUB has consistently advocated that the regulatory requirements of TE Plans should focus more on the utility’s investment to manage this new load, and less on the utility’s market intervention strategies. While EVs will grow in the utility’s service territory irrespective of its intervention plan, new load management investment is within the utility’s expertise and should be a high priority. Load management investment related to EVs will support customers with EVs, and therefore will encourage more customers to purchase EVs.
CUB appreciates that Pacific Power addresses this issue in its 2020 TE Plan. The utility assures that its existing distribution feeders are capable of mitigating most overload conditions arising from the projected residential EV charging. The utility’s planned projects would be moved up in the timeline in the event of a sudden increase in peak load. Pacific Power also hopes to efficiently manage its grid and integrate new renewables by introducing time-varying rates and direct load control. A targeted load management pilot in the North Santiam Canyon, launched in collaboration with the Energy Trust of Oregon, resulted in 174 energy efficiency projects and an estimated annual savings of 3554 MWh of energy. Another demand reduction pilot is also in its implementation phase.
CUB continues to support Oregon’s utilities, as we advocate for better management of EV load on their systems. CUB supports implementing demand management pilots for EVs and eventually deploying cost-effective programs to all customers in the utility’s service territory.
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02/18/20 | 0 Comments | Pacific Power Plans to Electrify Transportation in Oregon