The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has launched an online portal designed to help fleet operators and charging providers to interact with the United States’ 3,200 electric utilities. GridFAST encourages early notifications from customers with EV projects to allow utilities to plan for the new loads.
EPRI developed GridFAST in collaboration with utilities, fleet operators and charging providers, to address the challenges related to grid interconnections. Many of these challenges result from utilities’ different processes, tools and regulatory requirements. Planning and integrating new electrical loads on the grid has historically been a multi-year process—considerably longer than the time required to procure new electric cars, buses or trucks.
“For a hundred years, utilities have primarily integrated loads related to buildings, but these loads have long construction timelines, so the grid planning cycle matched those timelines,” said EPRI Senior Technical Executive Watson Collins. “EVs can be procured in a day or in a few months at most, so utility planning efforts need to start earlier than ever before. GridFAST enables customers with future projects to right-size their charging needs, while considering a utility’s existing grid capacity and any EV-related programs they offer.”
“If you are a customer planning sites with EV charging loads, the simplest way to begin an early and secure conversation with the right utility and utility contact, is to use GridFAST as a central portal for collaboration,” said EPRI Director of Transportation Britta Gross. “Enter the earliest information you have about a site, update it over time as details become clearer, and ensure that your project is on the utility’s radar years in advance of your load needing grid interconnection.”
Some of GridFAST’s key features:
- Customers can match any project location in the US to the relevant utility and the best point of contact at the utility.
- Customers can see EV-related program information across utilities in a standardized format.
- Customers can enter preliminary site information for projects many years down the road to inform utilities of future intentions.
- Customers need to understand only a single, common utility industry portal intake form to prepare information for a utility’s pre-service request process.
- Utilities can use customer site inputs to plan for the aggregate impact of customer loads, instead of addressing one customer load at a time.
Several utilities and charging operators have already signed on to GridFAST’s Guiding Principles, including Ameren, CenterPoint Energy, Con Edison, Consumers Energy, DHL, Great River Energy, IONNA, National Grid, Omaha Public Power District, Pacific Gas & Electric, Pitt Ohio, Portland General Electric, Republic Services, Sacramento Municipal Utility District and Southern California Edison.
“We need tools that will make it easier to interact with the dozen or so utilities that serve our sites, all of which have different processes and programs,” said Pitt Ohio VP of Vehicle Maintenance and Fleet Services Taki Darakos. “GridFAST’s standardization makes it easier to obtain information, identify the right contacts, and establish early connections with utilities. You enter some project information, even if you don’t yet know everything, and you get an estimate of the power needed and other information to begin a utility conversation.”