|
Figuring out high speed EV charging
RCA publishes for public comment utility proposals for electric rate structure for commercial charging stations in Alaska Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
The Regulatory Commission Alaska is requesting public comments on a proposal by the Alaska Railbelt electric utilities for a rate mechanism for electricity supplied to high-speed charging stations for electric vehicles. The deadline for comments is June 18.
The lack of the commercial scale charging stations on Alaska highways is a major impediment to the use of electric vehicles in the state. However, the utilities’ current approved tariffs do not include provisions for supplying power to charging stations - the RCA will need to approve some acceptable form of tariff arrangements. The commission may also need some adjustments to its regulations, to accommodate this new form of electricity supply.
Demand charges Since commercial charging stations are business operations, subject to the tariff rules that apply to businesses rather than residential customers, current tariffs would impose what are referred to as demand charges on the charging stations. These demand charges involve fees that are linked to the maximum rate of electricity usage, in addition to the fees charged for the amount of electricity consumed. Business customers incur especially high demand charges if their periods of high electricity usage correlate with periods of overall high demand on the electrical system.
But high-speed charging stations for electric vehicles have a particular electricity consumption profile, involving very high peak demand rates when vehicles are being charged but low overall electricity loads. And so, the imposition of routine business demand charges on the charging stations could lead to very high electricity costs that could deter people from using electric vehicles.
May 19 letter The Railbelt utilities made their proposal for a high-speed charging station rate structure in a May 19 letter to the commission. In this letter the utilities acknowledged that, while it is in their long-term interests to encourage electric vehicle use, the imposition of unrealistically high electricity costs on charging stations would likely deter the commercial implementation of stations. On the other hand, the utilities need some reasonable way of recovering the cost of the infrastructure needed to support the brief high demand rates that high speed charging stations would trigger.
The proposal is to temporarily eliminate separate demand charges for the fast charger infrastructure, with the recovery of high demand costs to come from a fee structure involving a formula that encapsulates a utility’s presumed charging station load factor - the load factor expresses the extent to which high load periods occur during periods of high overall electricity demand. The consequence would be a single electricity charge, incorporating both the demand costs relating to the electricity load and the cost of the amount of electricity supplied. This arrangement would come into effect at load factor levels that normally trigger particularly high demand charges.
Regulatory issues Also mentioned in the utilities’ letter and discussed during a May 26 RCA public meeting are two other regulatory issues. The first of these issues concerns the importance of not classifying charging stations as public utilities. A classification of a charging station as a public utility would result in the need for the RCA to regulate the charging station, including the regulation of the charging station’s rates. However, a charging station would presumably operate as a relatively small-scale business, competing in a market to sell power to electric vehicle owners. During the public meeting commissioners suggested that the utilities should petition the commission to deal with this question.
The second issue relates to the question of a charging station operator reselling to its customers electricity purchased from an electric utility. Apparently some utility tariffs prohibit electricity resale. RCA staff are going to investigate this issue and clarify whether it relates to some regulatory mandate - resolving the issue may simply involve some tariff changes.
| 