ELECTRIC VEHICLES AS DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES

The report argues that electric vehicles (EVs) represent a significant demand-side opportunity for the electricity grid. By treating EV charging as a distributed energy resource (DER), utilities can use smart charging—even without vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capabilities—to avoid infrastructure investment, integrate more variable renewables, and reduce system costs. The authors emphasize that charging behavior is most effectively influenced in the first few months of ownership, necessitating early action on rate design and infrastructure planning. Through modeling in five U.S. states and analysis of California pilots, the report demonstrates that optimized charging can substantially flatten load profiles and prevent peak demand increases. It outlines various roles for utilities (facilitator, manager, provider) and recommends the use of time-of-use (TOU) and dynamic pricing to shift loads to off-peak hours.

• Smart EV charging can provide numerous grid benefits, including avoiding new infrastructure investment, extending the life of existing assets, and enabling higher penetration of variable renewables like wind and solar without requiring new natural-gas generation.
• EV adoption is often geographically concentrated, which can create localized grid challenges. In San Diego, for example, some ZIP codes have EV ownership penetrations over 3%, while 84 others have less than 1%.
• Time-of-use (TOU) rates are effective at shifting EV charging to off-peak hours, particularly when the price differential is high. A price ratio of 6:1 between peak and super off-peak periods can shift up to 90% of charging to the super off-peak period.
• Modeling of five U.S. states shows that optimized charging significantly reduces the peak load contribution of EVs compared to uncontrolled charging. In Hawaii, 23% EV penetration with uncontrolled charging would increase peak load by 9%, whereas optimized charging would only increase it by 1.34%.
• Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, which allows EVs to act as grid supply, faces several hurdles including a lack of onboard V2G capability in most vehicles, warranty restrictions, and a lack of appropriate regulatory tariffs.
• Utilities can take several roles in the charging market: as a facilitator (providing only electric service), a manager (controlling chargers as demand response), or a provider (owning and operating the charging equipment).
• Customer charging behavior is most susceptible to influence during the first few months after acquiring an EV, making early regulatory and utility intervention critical.

APA

Fitzgerald, G., Nelder, C., & Newcomb, J. (2016). ELECTRIC VEHICLES AS DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/04/RMI_Electric_Vehicles_as_DERs_Final_V2.pdf

Chicago

Fitzgerald, Garrett, Chris Nelder, and James Newcomb. ELECTRIC VEHICLES AS DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES. RMI, 2016. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/04/RMI_Electric_Vehicles_as_DERs_Final_V2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Fitzgerald |first1=Garrett |last2=Nelder |first2=Chris |last3=Newcomb |first3=James |title=ELECTRIC VEHICLES AS DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES |publisher=RMI |date=June 2016 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/04/RMI_Electric_Vehicles_as_DERs_Final_V2.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{fitzgerald2016electric, author = {Fitzgerald, Garrett and Nelder, Chris and Newcomb, James}, title = {{ELECTRIC VEHICLES AS DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2016}, month = jun, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/04/RMI_Electric_Vehicles_as_DERs_Final_V2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }