Plug-In & Hybrid Electric Vehicle charging impacts: A survey of California's utility companies

With the growing market of vehicle electrification the need to understand impacts on California's electricity grid becomes essential to utility providers. This paper reviews the concerns and mitigation efforts by California's IOUs and MOUs in response to the paradigm shift in light duty vehicle (LDV) electrification; specifically, Plug-In & Hybrid Electric vehicles. Tariff scheduling, pricing structure, and specialized incentive programs are the primary methods with which utility companies are influencing time of day vehicle charging. California's utility companies currently forecast little impact on state-wide energy consumption out to 2020. However, investigations into local electric power distribution systems show a need to address high expected neighborhood adoption rates. This paper summarizes the special attention needed for local transmission and distribution circuits and poses a short list of prospective consumer-level technologies to help in the alleviation of costly upgrades. Emphasis is on California utility companies, California electricity distribution grid, and current implementable technology.