Solving Obstacles In-Person for a Decarbonized Future at the AEG Washington Stakeholder Challenge on Mobility & Transportation
Author: Zachary Lytle, AEG Fellow, Washington DC
After a year and a half of zooming through remote collaboration AEG Stakeholders gathered in-person for the AEG Washington 21Q4 Stakeholder Challenge on Mobility & Transportation. Many great obstacles were presented by our Speaker Challengers, but ultimately only one was selected as the most critical to overcome in 12 months.
The first presenter of the day, Eric Campbell, State Energy Program Manager at the Department of Energy and Environment, discussed the need for “An equitable access of resources to enable electrification adoption for light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles.” Campbell contextualized his obstacle around the District’s soon to be published Transportation and Electrification Roadmap.
Next, Nekabari Goka, Principal Business Program Manager at Pepco’s Utility of the Future Department, posed the obstacle of “right sizing transportation electrification programs to optimize for the customer and grid of the future.” In particular, Goka posited that utilities needed to reevaluate incentive structures to encourage its customers and partners to prioritize the long term goals over short term benefits.
Divesh Gupta, Director of Strategy of Utility of the Future at BGE, presented the obstacle of creating “integrated EV infrastructure planning and development under DC Housing Authority’s redevelopment plans, especially for private property managers such as those eligible for, but not taking full advantage of, BGE’s grants.” Through his presentation, Gupta highlighted that a common obstacle for BGE was getting property owners to participate in electrification programs given the risk and uncertainty.
Last to present was Chelle Izzi, Head of Mobility at Next Era Energy, who presented the winning obstacle statement of "Regarding Mobility & Transportation, to achieve Washington DC’s Carbon & Equity goals, a critical obstacle to overcome is minimizing the permitting and interconnection timeline and the utilization risk of launching a new energy infrastructure asset type - multi-modal green charging hubs.” In particular, Izzi highlighted that while early adopters have started to move to EVs, mass adoption remains out of reach. To get adoption, Izzi stated that concerns about resilience and efficiency needed to be resolved. Through the development of multi-modal charging stations, stakeholders would be able to accelerate adoption.
Once Stakeholders selected Chelle Izzi’s obstacle statement as the most critical to overcome, participants were divided into six breakout groups to develop a compelling, memorable and measurable 12-month solutions After each solution was presented and discussed, the room decided to move forward with the goal of: Proposing development of a specific multi-modal EV Hub taking into account equity, access, interconnection and cost. To achieve this goal, the Task Force plans to spend the first quarter gathering and analyzing data. The second quarter will focus on developing a Heat Map to visualize the analysis. Finally, the Task Force will utilize this work to recommend a site to develop a multi-modal EV charging station.
The Task Force that has formed to tackle this challenge has a robust team of over 10 members. Members of the Task Force come from a variety of backgrounds, including utilities, planning agencies, and engineering firms. With a broad range of expertise, the Task Force should make strong headway at tackling the work that lies ahead.
If you are interested in getting involved with this Task Force, please reach out to the Washington DC Fellows – Zach Lytle (zachary@goadvancedenergy.com) and Graham Warnock (graham@goadvancedenergy.com).