Are distribution feeders / substation ready for the impacts of Commercial EV implementation?

Commercial fleet electric vehicle charging infrastructure will be built by the owner on the customer side of the meter. The owner’s engineer will need to closely coordinate with the local distribution utility because fleet charging WILL impact the legacy distribution grid.  

Utility engineers will need to study the charging impacts and modify their grid accordingly.  This may require line upgrades or additions and modifications to one or more local substations....all depending on the size (load) of the fleet charging customer and the level of reliability that the customer demands.  The grid will deliver great reliability (typically 99.97% average across the country) and can deliver “resiliency” by means of hardened structures or underground. 

The utility grid will also connect the customer to low cost renewable generation as available and, therefore, there is no need for an expensive and “hard to run” microgrid.

Electric utilities have not prepared for the impacts of widespread, commercial EV facilities.  They continue to live in the past and utilize the framework established in the early 1900’s by Samuel Insull, Nikola Tesla, and other pioneers of the electric power industry.  Electric utilities need to develop a strategy to deal with the widespread conversion of industrial processes and residential loads to electric energy consumption.  EV’s are just one of many.

An innovative electric utility will propose a commercial EV billing structure that is a win – win for everyone.  For example, an innovative electric utility will develop

1. A monthly infrastructure charge, such as $10 per KW
2. A monthly consumption charge, such as $10 per KW
3. A daily interruption credit, such as $1 per KW
4. A daily electric grid support credit, such as $1 per KW

For a commercial EV facility with a peak demand of 500 KW, the monthly electric bill would be:

1. Monthly infrastructure charge     $5,000
2. Monthly consumption charge      $5,000

If extreme cold weather occurs and the electric utility needs to reduce consumption, the EV facility could reduce consumption to 250 KW and receive a credit

3. Interruption credit, 3 days              ($750)

If energy shortfalls occur and the electric utility needs to utilize EV batteries as an energy source, the EV facility could provide 250 KW to the electric grid and receive a credit

4. Electric grid support credit, 3 days   ($750)

With this scenario, commercial EV facilities will be able to support the electric grid and electric utilities will be able to utilize EV facilities as part of their energy control process. 

Electric utilities, their engineering firms, and their consultants need to adopt the mindset of innovators, namely, they need to recognize that industry leaders anticipate, and prepare for, change.

I would imagine that the answer you have is accurate. The implementation in systems management is doable already, but the hardest backlash will be employment and job cuts which the energy industry is not willing to let happen. Actually, I have been wondering if re-training and cross function job roles wouldn't be one of the best decisions the energy industry could make.

I think that utilities have  to make a master plan for commercial EVs include sizing and locations. Then it has to be superimposed as additional loads on the existing feeders and substations. If enforcement is needed , the required fund has to be allocated. TOU tariff could be applied to maximize RE consumption out of the peak hours.

In short, it depends. The first step that utilities must understand is extensive EV growth is inevitable, which most have. However, the argument revolves around how quickly. Next, you can get a pretty good idea by asking if they have an EV rate that shifts consumers' charging off-peak where additional grid capacity exists. Building additional capacity will be required subsequent to leveraging TOU rates. TOU rates can be targeted to increase the load factor relatively easy by leveraging an AMI system to bill off interval reads. So, if utilities are having these conversations and implementing some of these strategies they will buy ample time to adapt CEV in my opinion.

I don't know if all the utilities are prepared because I suspect distribution companies in states that have integrated distribution planning or grid modernization dockets have an upper hand in terms of identifying feeders that have "hosting capacity" to reliably interconnect distributed energy resources including solar and commercial EV fleet load.

In my opinion, an utility can pro-actively show hosting capacity analysis on feeders where it makes most sense for commercial EVs to interconnect.