Acadia Center recommends the following:
- There is a wide range of information about EV charging that could aid distribution company planning. At a minimum, disclosure of vehicle registry information with appropriate privacy protections should take place either informally or put into statute. Disclosure of significant EV charging installations could be addressed in electric tariffs but may be more desirable to put into statute.
- NSTAR Electric’s EV pilot program should not be offered to all customers at this time. The Department should order the creation of a simultaneous pilot on residential EV-specifictime-of-use rates and direct each distribution company to lay out options for a whole-house time-of-use rate offering. If the pilots are conducted expeditiously, the Department should be able to decide what combination of programs should be made available to all customers in late 2015 or early 2016. This more general offering should serve both as an incentive for EV adoption and as an incentive for EV owners to charge at times when impact on the grid will be low.
- The Department should adopt a rate pilot to reform demand charges for DC fast chargers similar to the Connecticut Light and Power pilot approved in June 2014, with consideration of alterations to prevent unreasonable cross-subsidization. This will make investment in the critical network of public DC fast charging economically feasible in the short term, and allow for the collection of data to consider broader reforms, such as a designated rate class for DC fast chargers.
- The Department should conduct a study on vehicle-grid integration and lay out a roadmap on long-term policy choices, either independently or in conjunction with the Department of Energy Resources.