Electricity Rates for Electric Vehicle FastCharging Stations in the US

Eleftheria Kontou, PhD

Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaignkontou@illinois.edu

Joint work with Drs. Muratori & Eichman, NRELTE3 October 18, 2019

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US Fast Charging Infrastructure

Fast charging stations coverage and prices (Y 2018)

Known prices: 1,294 stations [EVgo, Tesla, Blink, Webasto]Mean: 0.35 $/kWhMedian: 0.26 $/kWhStandard Deviation: 0.22 $/kWh

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Electricity Costs of Fast Charging Providers

Issues with electricity rates

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Electricity Bill Example

Types of charges1

1NREL (2017) Identifying Potential Markets for Behind-the-Meter Battery Energy Storage: A Survey of U.S. Demand Charges.

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Research Scope

Evaluate average cost of electricity2 for electric vehicle fastcharging providers and operators in the United States

illustrative scenarios for charging units specificationcomparison of rates with and w/o demand charges

2Evidence of high avg. electricity costs provided in the following empirical reports:

Fitzgerald G, Nelder C (2017) EVgo fleet and Tariff Analysis - Phase 1: California. (Rocky Mountain Institute, Boulder)NYSERDA (2015) Electricity Rate Tariff Options for Minimizing Direct Current Fast Charger Demand Charges.Report Number 16-02.

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Rates: Utility Rate Database

Leveraging NREL’s utility rate database (URDB), pinpointcommercial and industrial electric utility rates (> 25,000)7,500 commercial rates potentially applicable to fast charging

Energy Information Administration. (2017). U.S. Utility Rate Database. Available at:http://en.openei.org/wiki/Utility_Rate_Database

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Fast Charging Scenarios

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Charging Energy Impacts

Electricity cost for scenarios over range of # average kWh percharge

higher energy drawn from the grid per charge mitigates costwhen kWh per charge increase, rates with demand chargesbecome preferable

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Charger Utilization ImpactsElectricity cost for scenarios over range of # of daily chargingevents

higher levels of station utilization mitigate high electricity costsrates without demand charges preferable when utilization levelsare lowrates with demand charges preferable when utilization levels arehigh

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Conclusions

Electricity cost for fast charging insightsfor small, low utilized fast charging stations observe higher avgelectricity costs and the largest cost variability among differentratescost can be reduced when stations are used by more drivers ordrivers consume greater electricity volume per charging eventcosts can be reduced with appropriate electricity rate-making

1 only rates with energy charges in the early stages of transportationelectrification

2 transition to tariffs with demand charges and lower energy charges ascharging station utilization increases

3 agreements with fleet owners and ridehailing services to inducedemand

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References & Acknowledgement

This work was partially authored by the National Renewable EnergyLaboratory, operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, for the UnitedStates (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No.DE-AC36-08GO28308. Funding was provided by the DOE Office of EnergyEfficiency and Renewable Energy Vehicle Technologies Office and Office ofPolicy. The authors particularly appreciate the support and guidanceprovided by DOE program managers Rachael Nealer, Mark Smith, KellyFleming, Sarah Garman, Erin Boyd, Sydney Menees, and AlyseTaylor-Anyikire, the comments provided by John Smart and Shawn Salisbury(Idaho National Laboratory), and the geographic information systems supportprovided by Billy Roberts (NREL). The views and opinions expressed in thispresentation are those of the author alone and do not reflect the positions ofNREL or of the US government.

Study’s Reference

Matteo Muratori, Eleftheria Kontou, and Joshua Eichman. "Electricityrates for electric vehicle direct current fast charging in the United States."Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 113 (2019): 109235.

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