Xcel Energy Proposes Time-of-Use Programs for Wisconsin Residential EV Charging

Northern States Power Company proposed two residential electric vehicle charging programs to incentivize charging during off peak times, according to a Nov. 20 filing with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission. Customers would be provided with charging equipment and allowed to utilize time-of-use rates to charge their cars.

To overcome the upfront cost barrier to EV adoption, residential customers will have an option to prepay for the charger or pay a bundled monthly charge. The combination of charging equipment and time-of-use rate design delivers upfront and ongoing cost savings, as well as a positive customer experience, according to the company. The program costs are recovered through dedicated customer charges, thereby eliminating cross subsidization from non-participating non-EV owning customers.

The utility also proposed a commercial EV service program to explore an alternative to Wisconsin’s current extension rules for medium and large EV customers. The program would facilitate the study of a modification to the electric extension rules formula, so as to provide eligible customers with a revenue based  allowance. Under the calculation, the “levelized annual revenue requirement of the investments needed to serve the new customer load equals the incremental distribution demand revenues that will materialize to the company due to the load growth.” This would provide an allowance that is tailored to each customer-specific extension cost and incremental revenues.

The company seeks approval of the programs by March 1, 2020, so that they can be made available to customers in mid-2020. Northern States Power is a subsidiary of Xcel Energy Inc.