Itron is collaborating with PG&E to make electric vehicle charging more accessible and affordable for the utility’s customers. The two companies share the goal of lowering the barriers for customers to charge their EVs at home by avoiding the need for costly customer electric panel and service upgrades.

Itron and PG&E are developing a customer-focused pilot to test and manage EV charging loads in real time. Their plan of action combines elements of consumer engagement, advanced edge compute capabilities, and broad industry collaboration.

Advanced edge computing capabilities cover complex data processing – real-time analytics, AI inferencing and machine learning, directly at the source of data generation, in EV charging stations in buildings at the edge of the grid.

“Grid edge” is a new term that covers all distributed hardware, software and business innovations that exist close to the end users, rather than at the center of a traditional electricity generation network.

Distributed energy resources (DERs) at the edges of the electricity grid can include renewable energy technologies like solar panels on the roof of a residence, energy storage in batteries, and combined heat and power facilities.

DERs can help agencies meet goals and mandates, deliver cost and energy savings, and provide environmental benefits. With powerful edge computing hardware and optimized software designed for distributed environments, they can meet data security and privacy requirements.

Here’s how it works. Typically, a Level 2 EV charger requires a 200-amp service to the customer’s home.

A Level 2 charger is up to 15 times faster than plugging an EV into a standard wall outlet and allows drivers to fully charge their EVs from empty overnight.

If a customer has 100-amp service, which is the case for about half of the homes in PG&E’s service area, upgrading to a 200-amp panel and service can cost customers thousands of dollars and take months to complete, the company says.

Unlike typical cloud-only software-based integrations that exchange information only a few times a day, the EV Connect program is unique in that it will use distributed intelligence edge computing that operates on a customer’s electric meter directly.

This on-meter application connects to, and coordinates with, the customer’s EV charger to keep charging within their panel and utility grid limits.

The combined solution enables a customer to avoid the cost of panel and service upgrades while still being able to install and operate faster Level 2 EV charging at home.

“The EV Connect collaboration with our longtime customer, PG&E, illustrates the possibilities of Itron’s Grid Edge Intelligence portfolio. The utility can deploy additional capabilities to its existing Itron communications network to enable intelligence at the grid edge and help end-use customers avoid the financial burden and wait time associated with upgrading service panels and residential service conductors,” said Don Reeves, senior vice president of outcomes at Itron.

“This is just one example of the possibilities for distributed energy resource management enabled by Itron’s technology platform,” Reeves said. “By deploying grid edge intelligence, we can help consumers and utilities avoid costly upgrades whatever the source of the demand, such as thermostats, water heaters, appliances, pool pumps, photovoltaic inverters and more.”