PLMA: Load Management Dialogues

Avista used Bidgely’s UtilityAI Platform to validate expectations about their EV customers, helping to drive equitable electrification for all, including low income communities. Join us to learn more about how Bidgely helped Avista reduce high-bill-investigation truck rolls by 27% in the first year; improve customer engagement/satisfaction; enhance EV grid planning; and save hundreds of hours of employee workload. The platform also helped Avista’s grid planning teams as they evaluated the imp...

This panel will explore the intricacies of orchestrating electric vehicle managed charging programs and how automakers, electric vehicle supply equipment manufacturers, software providers, and utilities interact and promote effective programs. Drawing from lessons learned and experiences to date, the discussion will focus on managing EV charging to mitigate transformer overloading, avoid feeder upgrades, and improve energy usage across the grid.

Delivering a successful utility EV program, whether focused on adoption or managed charging, requires coordination across several different stakeholders, including the utility, utility vendors, and OEMs. Often, car dealerships are ignored due to their unique structure and their relatively new engagement with utility programs. This session will discuss specific barriers car dealerships face within the transition to EVs and strategies utilities can use to engage dealerships and potentially smoo...

A discussion about the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Program and how it's being implemented in two states. Erin Belt with VDOT will share how Virginia has developed their NEVI Deployment Plan, selected alternative fuel corridors for federal designation, and released their Phase I-A funding through a grant application process. VDOT made coordination with utility providers in Virginia a priority with the development of their funding application and have early lessons learned ...

"With electricity demand growing for the first time in a decade and fossil assets retiring, deploying 80-160 GW of virtual power plants (VPPs)—tripling current scale—by 2030 could support rapid electrification while redirecting grid spending from peaker plants to participants and reducing overall grid costs.“ Jen Downing from the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office will present key insights from the recently published VPP Liftoff Report. This will include the current state of VPPs in ...

Rocky Mountain Power (RMP) received PLMA's Technology Pioneer Award this Spring for their work partnering with rooftop solar customers to accelerate their transition to the renewable grid of the future. The Wattsmart Battery Program innovation journey started in 2017 as a partnership between the utility (RMP), local developer and RMP customer The Wasatch Group, and Sonnen, a battery manufacturer. Together, they worked through policy and technical constraints to install over 600 batterie...

California is in the middle of a regulatory proceeding to lower volumetric electricity rates and replace the revenue with income-graduated fixed charges. The idea was inspired in part by a 2021 UC Berkeley Energy Institute study that found the current rate structures of the investor-owned utilities have rates that are at least double the utility's avoided cost. A successor study released in 2022 found that the current rate structure places a disproportionate burden of paying for fixed costs a...