Greenlots Supports Southern California Edison's Deployment of 80 Level 2 Chargers at Multiple Sites for Demand Response in Workplace Charging

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Greenlots, a global provider of open standards-based technology solutions for electric vehicles, and its partner EVSE LLC, a leading electric vehicle charging manufacturer, today announced that they are supporting a California Public Utility Commission-approved workplace EV charging pilot for Southern California Edison (SCE), one of the nation's largest electric utilities.

To conduct the pilot, SCE recently deployed 80 Level 2 chargers for a consumer behavior study to test fee-based charging and demand response (DR) at various SCE work facilities. The project, which started in October 2014, is among the first large scale pilots to use open standards protocols OpenADR 2.0b and OCPP in combination for electric vehicle charging.

According to Navigant Research, annual sales for workplace charging  is expected to surpass 63,000 by 2020 in the United States. While residential charging remains the top location for EV charging, workplace charging provides electric vehicle drivers with the range confidence they need to reliably make their daily commute. With the increase of electric vehicle adoption rates, utilities will be looking for a cost effective solution to address additional loads in an effort to stabilize the grid.

"By embracing workplace demand response programs, utilities gain new opportunities to engage their customers and avoid disintermediation by third parties," said Brett Hauser, CEO of Greenlots. "More and more utilities are adopting applications that use open standards which gives them the flexibility to scale their implementations without the risk of vendor lock-in from proprietary solutions."

SCE's study will examine how electric vehicle drivers respond to demand response events and dynamic pricing when charging their EVs at the workplace. The data collected will provide a better understanding of how consumer behavior changes in response to these signals and, ultimately, how EV demand response programs at the workplace will impact building loads, energy costs, and grid flexibility. Currently, SCE employees are able to plug-in when they arrive at work and opt into demand response using EVSE LLC's chargers and Payment Kiosk integrated with Greenlots' SKY OCPP system and SCE's Demand Response platform. By the end of 2015, the data collected will provide valuable insights into customer responsiveness, DR technologies that support non-proprietary charging options, open communications standards, and the potential for using EV's in demand response programs.

The SCE pilot leverages the demand response and EV infrastructure industry's two de facto open standards, OpenADR 2.0b and OCPP, the foundation of Greenlots' SKY Smart Charging™, to manage EV loads without requiring separate systems for charging management. The pilot aims to inform future EV charging initiatives in many key areas, such as:

• Evaluating the impact of EV charging on peak load and the effectiveness of managing the peak through automatic load curtailment.
• Enabling consumers to opt-in or out of a demand response program.
• Evaluating consumer response to a variety of pricing and DR strategies.
• Identifying cost-effective strategies related to system development requirements.
• Directly engaging customers in demand response programs through Greenlots applications.
• Evaluating DR as a means of mitigating local transformer overload risk in areas with EV clusters.
• Evaluating the potential for creating accurate load plans through site and region specific demand response management of EV charging.
• Lowering system costs via open standards.
• Enabling and evaluating charging system response to day-ahead and hour-ahead pricing and load curtailment signals.

"EVSE LLC's implementation with Greenlots and SCE demonstrates the value of a flexible and smart EV charger platform that adapts to the specific needs of its customers," said John Fahy, President of EVSE LLC. "As the EV infrastructure evolves more and more clients are looking to leverage existing in-place systems when deploying EV chargers. EVSE LLC is excited about this pilot with SCE and continues the company's efforts with leading US utilities."

"As more electric vehicles enter the market and more workplaces adopt charging for employees, it will be essential for utilities to cost-effectively manage periods of high demand on the electrical grid with demand response programs," said Tom Walker, Director of New Program Development and Launch at Southern California Edison. "This project will help SCE determine how to extend demand response to thousands of EV drivers, will help SCE support California's greenhouse gas emissions reductions and EV adoption goals, and allow workplaces to use power wisely." 

About Greenlots:
Greenlots is a global provider of open standards-based technology solutions for electric vehicle (EV) networks and grid management. Designed to answer the needs of site hosts offering workplace and public charging applications, Greenlots' SKY Smart Charging™ platform is a robust network management solution that utilizes Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP), the largest open standard for charger-to-network communications. SKY is the only charging network to be OpenADR 2.0b certified and enables utilities and site hosts to work together on demand response programs, leveraging EVs as a grid resource and avoiding costly energy infrastructure upgrades. Greenlots is headquartered in San Francisco and has deployed solutions in 13 countries around the globe. Visit www.greenlots.com for more information or follow us on Twitter @greenlots.

About Southern California Edison:
An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation's largest electric utilities, serving a population of nearly 14 million via 4.9 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California. You can find more information at: http://www.edison.com/home.html.

About EVSE LLC:
EVSE LLC (www.evsellc.com) is a subsidiary of Control Module Inc founded in 1969. EVSE LLC has focused on a modular EV charger platform to adapt to evolving customer requirements. EVSE's flexibility has its roots in Control Module's 45 year history of developing and integrating hardware and software with complex enterprise systems such as those used by Hertz, Disney, UPS and a long list of Fortune 500 clients.  EVSE LLC began its integrations work with Greenlots' OCPP network in 2011, advancing open charging to ensure universal access for all EV drivers regardless of the charging station manufacturer.

Media Contact:
MissionCTRL Communications
[email protected]

SOURCE Greenlots

Related Links

http://www.greenlots.com