Demonstrating Demand Management: How Intelligent EV Charging Can Benefit Everyone

This paper establishes the case for Electric Vehicle (EV) charging demand management through in-field demonstration, electricity network modelling and financial assessment. As part of the Victorian Government Electric Vehicle Trial, DiUS Computing demonstrated EV charging demand management using United Energy’s Smart Grid. Modelling of the United Energy network by the University of Melbourne found that uncontrolled charging would require network augmentation once EVs are adopted by 10% of households. In contrast, managed charging would allow the network to support in excess of 50% uptake using existing capacity and infrastructure. Furthermore, the end-to-end EV charging demand management solution demonstrated by DiUS could be implemented for one tenth the cost of the network augmentation. Although success factors were identified during the demonstration that may serve as an input for demand management program design, electricity market arrangements may be the strongest determinant of adoption generally.