Client
Black Hills Energy
Title
Electric Vehicle Program Design
Challenge & Opportunity
Challenge
- A Colorado Senate bill was passed to allow and encourage public utilities to develop and implement an electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure program.
- Programs must be cost-effective and in the public interest in order to be approved.
Cost-effectiveness for EV programs can be difficult to achieve.
Opportunity
- Develop a custom methodology that analyzes cost-effectiveness in a complete perspective that shows the true costs and benefits of EV infrastructure.
Solutions
AEG characterized savings from EV charging infrastructure from two sources:
- Energy savings achieved through more efficient EV charging stations.
- Converting gasoline savings into an energy equivalent savings from the associated EVs.
The creative solution of converting gasoline savings to kWh savings was integral to making the program cost-effective and a key driver for the approval of the program.
AEG used its proprietary program modeling tool, BenCost, to complete the cost-effectiveness analysis used in the regulatory filing.
Results
- Black Hills Energy filed their Ready EV program with a cost-effective program based on the analysis performed by AEG.
- AEG performed a successful analysis that was included in testimony by Black Hills and used in the filing/case as evidence for the approval of its plan.
Final approval from the Commission is still pending.
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