The Mobility House, a smart charging and energy management solutions provider, and Itron, Inc., which is innovating new ways for utilities and cities to manage energy and water, are beginning a project in New York State to implement technology to accelerate fleet electrification.

This initiative, supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), will use flexible service connections to address distribution system capacity to prevent delays in fleet charging.

The flexible service connection demonstration will integrate Itron's IntelliFLEX DERMS solution, which is part of its Grid Edge Intelligence portfolio, with automated load management (ALM) from The Mobility House's ChargePilot charge management system (CMS).

According to a release, this would enable fleets to "operate efficiently while reducing, or even eliminating, the need for costly and time-intensive infrastructure upgrades and maximize the utilization of existing distribution infrastructure."

Smart Charging Solutions Overcome Grid Constraints

The difficulty of implementing electrical distribution system upgrades is one of the most challenging barriers to fleet electrification. To directly address this challenge, the collaboration will deliver a technical solution that enables fleet operators to optimize their charging sites despite capacity constraints.

Combining automated load management (ALM) from ChargePilot with real-time distribution grid data from a DI-enabled meter ensures that fleets can operate within the constraints of their local energy infrastructure without compromising vehicle operational needs.

"This technology combination is absolutely critical to the timely transition to zero-emission vehicles," says Greg Hintler, CEO of The Mobility House North America. "If we can solve the interconnection backlog, the biggest obstacle to fleet electrification will be removed."

Flexible service connection provides the ability for a utility to approve service to energize electric vehicle charging infrastructure that distribution capacity constraints might otherwise prohibit. This is possible because the utility can ensure that the fleet does not exceed a predetermined charging capacity limit at certain times, based on forecasted or real-time distribution system capacity.

Under the implementation architecture tested in this project, to reliably reduce charging when required, the utility will provide the Itron IntelliFLEX solution with physical equipment limitations and grid topology, which then provides a signal to ChargePilot to adjust charging.

Utilities can now enable intelligence at the grid edge and help end-use customers avoid the financial burden and wait time associated with upgrading distribution infrastructure to support their fleet electrification goals," said Don Reeves, senior vice president of Outcomes at Itron. "This is just one example of the possibilities for distributed energy resource management enabled by Itron's technology platform."

Transforming Grid Management in New York

The flexible service connection demonstration will roll out in two phases. In the first phase, The Mobility House and Itron will deploy the technology integration with an implementation of five chargers at a school bus site in Staten Island, in collaboration with nonprofit bus operator New York City School Bus Umbrella Services (NYCSBUS) and electric utility provider Consolidated Edison (Con Ed).

In the second phase, ten additional chargers will be deployed at a second site elsewhere in New York State.

Key benefits of the integrated technology solution include:

• Cost Savings: Avoids or postpones costly infrastructure upgrades by optimizing power utilization across the distribution service area.

• Speed of deployment: A Flexible service connection will allow electric utilities to keep up with the pace of fleet electrification.

• Scalability: Unlocks a replicable model that utilities across New York and the nation can adopt to optimize charging infrastructure.

"NYSERDA's support of The Mobility House's fleet electrification technology will enhance utilities' abilities to more efficiently manage the distribution of energy while serving the growing number of electric school buses on our roads," NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said. "By integrating this technology into select New York locations, together we will demonstrate how flexible interconnections for electric school buses can help harness energy use for multiple chargers and enable faster charging."