The Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) and Indian AI SaaS company Bidgely want to educate utilities on how AI can enable grid impact analysis and facilitate management of future electric vehicle (EV) demand.

They have released a report – AI for Transportation Electrification – with case studies from utilities such as Hydro One and NV Energy that demonstrate how AI-powered tools enhance programme evaluation and customer recruitment for load-shifting initiatives through EV detection and charging characterisation.

“SEPA’s collaboration with Bidgely underscores the critical role of AI in addressing the complexities of transportation electrification,” said Sheri Givens, CEO of Washington-based SEPA. “Together, we are providing utilities with practical strategies to advance EV adoption while ensuring grid resilience.”

With a focus on Bidgely’s disaggregation technology, SEPA outlines the advantages utilities gain by disaggregating advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) data to gain insights into EVs and EV users in their service territories, including:

• Identify EV drivers more efficiently, as opposed to traditional self reports and surveys, for more accurate and personalised customer engagement.
• Access higher-quality EV charging characteristics, including differentiation of levels one and two chargers; hourly charging patterns (time of day, duration and intensity); and amplitude of charges.
• Design better-targeted EV managed charging programmes with the ability to measure variations in customer responses and improve future initiatives.
• Map transportation electrification trends to forecast EV load growth on individual grid assets and manage future infrastructure planning.

Detailing the innovative application of AI software by two North American utilities, the report explores how AI-powered data insights help solve problems posed by EV adoption and integration.

For example, Hydro One (www.hydroone.com), an electricity transmission and distribution utility serving Ontario, identified 20,000 EVs charging on its grid via AMI data disaggregation, ten times more than were self-reported through customer surveys. Hydro One further refined its customer engagement strategy using AI-powered consumption insights to personalise messages for enrolment in a pilot EV demand response programme, resulting in 300 signups within 24 hours.

For NV Energy (www.nvenergy.com), a generation, transmission and distribution utility serving northern and southern Nevada, AI-powered data disaggregation allowed the utility to gain a holistic understanding of how often EV drivers charge on-peak and how their behaviour contributes to overall electricity demand.

By using AI to identify certain customer use profiles and then engage only customers with high-value baseline charging behaviour, NV Energy achieved a load-shift potential of 2 to 4kW/vehicle per managed charging event as opposed to typical load shifts of 0.2 to 0.8kW/vehicle per event, 2.5 times to ten times greater load-shift on average.

Targeted load shifting initiatives such as these can enhance utilities’ system resilience capabilities as EV charging increases, while yielding cost efficiencies for utilities and customers.

“AI is crucial for utilities to proactively address the grid challenges posed by the surge in electric vehicles,” said Abhay Gupta, CEO of Bidgely. “We support SEPA in creating a valuable resource that underscores the importance of developing sophisticated EV programmes powered by AI-driven data analytics.”

To read the report, visit: sepapower.org/resource/insight-brief-ai-for-transportation-electrification.

SEPA (www.sepapower.org) is a non-profit organisation with more than 1000 members.

Bidgely (www.bidgely.com) is an AI-powered SaaS company accelerating a clean energy future by enabling energy companies and consumers to make data-driven energy-related decisions. Its UtilityAI platform transforms multiple dimensions of user data – such as energy consumption, demographics and interactions – into deeply accurate and actionable consumer energy insights. With roots in Silicon Valley, Bidgely has over 16 energy patents and $75m in funding. It retains more than 30 data scientists.