APPA, Public Power Utilities Participate in EPRI Initiative to Support Widescale National EV Rollout

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 10, 2023

The American Public Power Association and public power utilities are participating in a new Electric Power Research Institute initiative aimed at preparing the U.S. electric grid in support of the accelerated development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

The three-year initiative, EVs2Scale2030™, includes electric companies, fleet operators, auto and truck manufacturers, and charging providers, in coordination with federal agencies and national labs, the Edison Electric Institute, APPA, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, and the Alliance for Transportation Electrification.

Amazon is the first logistics provider to join the initiative. Founding electric utility members include: 

• Austin Energy
• CenterPoint Energy
• Con Edison
• FirstEnergy
• Great River Energy
• National Grid
• New York Power Authority
• Omaha Public Power District
• Pacific Gas & Electric
• Portland General Electric
• Sacramento Municipal Utility District
• Salt River Project
• Seattle City Light
• Southern California Edison
• Southern Company
• Xcel Energy

Additional data collaborators include Daimler Truck North America, PACCAR, Volvo Group North America, and World Resources Institute.

Among key resources, the initiative plans to create:

• A 50-state visualization and 2030 roadmap identifying the aggregated and anonymized electric vehicle loads, grid impacts, utility lead times, workforce requirements, and costs;
• An online platform that defines the cross-industry processes needed to support the pace of activity and investment required to meet large-scale electrification by 2030; and
• A secure data exchange platform for fleet operators and charging providers that allows energy companies to better plan and prioritize investments in grid upgrades.

Additional information about the initiative is available on EPRI’s website.