At its second electric vehicle technical conference, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) laid out plans to formulate regulatory policy and develop future rat structures.
Much of this will revolve around grid impact and charger availability, as linked to electric vehicles. They received feedback linked to these as they create policy connected to anticipated growth of market and the increased demands those changes will have on the state’s charging infrastructure. Electrical demand and service reliability are also among the concerns the Commission hopes to address soon.
“We’re excited by the forward-looking proposals presented today and the robust discussion that offered a vision for moving from concept to deployment,” MPSC Commissioner Norm Saari said. “We greatly appreciate the work that Michigan and national stakeholders have taken to identify the issues that lie ahead and to offer cooperative solutions.”
Both rate structure and time-of-day use have yet to be determined for the day when electric vehicles see expanded operation. For presenters at the conference, though, customer education was noted as a critical need for any future efforts. They addressed the need for the MPSC to increase awareness of EV technology from the start and ease concerns about electric vehicles’ range capabilities. On the more practical end, they also called for making chargers more visible and accessible, increased battery storage and use of level 2 fast chargers on key travel routes, and coupling of all this with solid data collection and evaluation of the effects increased demand will have on the electrical grid at certain times.