The age of the electric vehicle (EV) is now. Wide adoption of EVs by fleet owners across the country is already happening. In its second white paper, EPIcenter, a nonprofit energy innovation hub, presents the advancement and analysis of how fleet owners and the utilities that supply their power can work together to manage costs, optimize charging operations and maintain grid stability.

Charging Forward: How Fleet Owners, Utilities, and the Planet Can Benefit from Deliberate and Optimized EV Charging explores how EVs are not only gaining ground in the personal-vehicle market but progressing into the fleet markets of delivery services, school districts, public transit, construction firms, and governmental entities, among others. The paper introduces the benefits and challenges that the advancement of EV technology presents in commercial and rental fleet spaces.

“The best-case scenario is where both the fleet-operating companies and their utilities begin talking long before the actual EV adoption process begins,” Kimberly M. Britton, CEO of EPIcenter, said. “This approach allows both to locate and size infrastructure appropriately and to efficiently deliver the power needed while enhancing grid stability. Such collaboration should lead to minimized battery and equipment degradation, maintenance cost savings, and enables EVs to draw electricity when it is most plentiful and least expensive.”

The goals of the utilities are similar to those of the fleet owners - mission accomplishment with the least costly financial impact. For example, for fleet owners, the long-term benefits of optimized charging should outweigh the near-term costs of installing new EV charging infrastructure. And for utilities, carefully planning the scale of any new distribution infrastructure that delivers power to the fleet charging station can keep costs down. And when the utility comes out ahead financially, shareholders realize better returns. By intentionally aligning their goals and working together to achieve them, both fleet owners and utilities can surmount the challenges to EV fleet adoption.

To learn more or to access Charging Forward: How Fleet Owners, Utilities, and the Planet Can Benefit from Deliberate and Optimized EV Charging, please visit www.epicenterus.org