large retail loads
Large retail loads incur significant demand and environmental costs. Utility rates often increase at the pace of new regulations. EPSIM works with utility customers to develop cost-reduction strategies, including:
- Peak demand reduction
- Distributed generation
- Feasibility Studies, cost / benefit analysis
- Shadow calculation of utility bills
- Load performance analysis
Municipal and public utilities
EPSIM brings over 20 years of experience helping Public Electric Utilities and WAPA customers. Our services include:
- Feasibility, financial analysis
- Load and resource planning
- Utility start-up and operations
- Rate study
- ISO billing determinants and rates process automation
- JPA participation
- Wholesale energy procurement, Power Purchase Agreements
- Regulatory compliance and reports
- Integrated Resource Plans
energy storage and electric vehicles
The wild development of intermittent grid generation, such as photo-voltaic solar and wind, and the new regulation landscape since 2010 have destabilized the transmission and distribution of electricity. The root cause is the lack of capacity control. There are two components to electric delivery: energy and capacity. A similarity would be the delivery of water, which requires water and a bottle; without the bottle, one must leak the floor to drink the water. Likewise with energy lacking capacity.
Today, batteries are being installed to reign in the intermittency of renewable generation. These batteries are single-purposed. Their costs are prohibitive and require government subsidies to make the projects barely feasible financially. This leaves nothing for the organic research and development of new battery technologies. The same phenomenon applies to cars. Electric vehicles are very expensive because the battery doubles the car cost. Again, the battery of an EV is single purposed and the R&D is stifled by corporate contracts.
Back in the early 2000’s, Better Place developed the concept of battery swapping for electric vehicles. It was a technical success but financially short-lived. In 2013, EPSIM analyzed the root cause of Better Place’s financial demise, and developed a business model around battery-swapping EVs providing capacity to the grid for the proper integration of renewable energy. In 2021, EPSIM built a battery-swapping electric vehicle using a 1948 Willys CJ2A: https://youtu.be/WklIuf8_qwE
Advantages of Battery-Swapping EVs
Compared to conventional EVs, battery-swapping vehicles have the following advantages:
- Purchase price point competitive with gasoline counterparts
- Refuel time comparable to gasoline, under 5 minutes
- Same tax model as gasoline for the maintenance of roads and bridges
- The vehicle retains its value, unlike conventional EVs which are worth nothing when the battery needs replacement.
- Benefits from the natural evolution of battery technology without changing vehicle, since the battery is a service, not a liability to the owner.
- No need to jack-hammer sidewalks for charging stations.
EPSIM's proposal
If you are a public electric utility genuinely interested in developing the highest level of renewable energy and electric vehicles penetration, EPSIM’s battery-swapping EV is the solution. The feasibility, development and implementation can be done in four years and under US$70 million for the first 4 MW of storage and 300 EVs. We look forward to hearing from you.
EPSIM representative projects
- New utility start-up: developed the load and resource forecasts and plans. Directed the in-house development of enterprise software for scheduling, metering, and billing. Placed the utility's first schedule, and handled resource trading while hiring and training the operations team.
- Led the grass-root development of utility operation software to facilitate load forecasting, wholesale resource scheduling, meter management, retail billing, cost validation, custom reports, reconciliation, and settlements.
- Guided the new scheduling and settlement mechanisms for two public utilities during CAISO's transition to its Market Redesign and Technology Upgrade.
- Directed the implementation of a wholesale market platform aggregator functions on behalf of ten public utilities and a Federal Agency.
- Developed Cost of Services study for an electric utility serving a community ravaged by a flood in 2013. The study informed Trustees policies on local solar development, ten-year rate forecast on a revenue basis, renewable portfolio standard, and wholesale price forecasts.
- Developed high granularity load and financial models, integrated with third-party resource models and risk analysis tools, to validate the feasibility of a municipal utility for Boulder, CO.
EPSIM Customer Testimonial
" I want to emphasize again how truly informative and impressed I was with your study and presentations. The UEB has just had a Stormwater Master Plan, a Sewer Expansion Study, a Water and Sewer Rate Study and a Water and Sewer CIP so we've had a few things to compare it to. I think this will help the town make some informed decisions about its electric utility." Municipal Utility- 2017