In the Matter of the Petition of the Electric Vehicle Work Group for Implementation of a Statewide Electric Vehicle Portfolio

Maryland had a statutory goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 40 percent of 2006 levels by 2030. The Maryland Public Service Commission (the commission) received a petition from Maryland utilities and other organizations for a statewide EV portfolio of programs and other offerings to incentivize the creation of an EV charging network to help achieve these greenhouse-gas-emission-reduction goals. Specifically, the petition sought to create a charging infrastructure that would (1) reduce EV users’ concerns about being able to travel long distances in their EVs (so-called “range anxiety”), (2) help EV users understand and manage their vehicles’ charging loads, (3) increase interest and investment in EV smart charging, (4) provide information about EV charging behavior to support rate design and programs to incentivize managed charging, and (5) examine the impacts of EV charging on the electric grid. Some of the EV portfolio’s sub-portfolios concerned residential service and proposed incentives and other offerings that had a combined cost of $17.8 million to Maryland utilities. Among other things, the sub-portfolios proposed to offer residential customers rebates of roughly $500 for purchasing and installing smart EV chargers. The $500 rebate amount was selected to approximate the difference in price between a smart EV charger and a non-smart EV charger, with the goal of encouraging customers to purchase smart chargers that would allow utilities to collect usage data and analyze grid impacts. However, the actual price difference between smart and non-smart chargers was only $372. Commission staff recommended reducing the rebate amount or, as an alternative to rebates, offering residential customers electric-distribution rates that varied by time of day to encourage EV charging at off-peak hours. The commission issued a decision on the proposed EV portfolio.