EV Program & Market Studies for National Grid Rhode Island, New York & Massachusetts

DNV is leading an embedded impact and process evaluation for National Grid's EV programs in Rhode Island, conducting evaluation activities concurrently with program delivery.

About the customer

DNV is leading an embedded impact and process evaluation for National Grid's EV programs in Rhode Island (RI), conducting evaluation activities concurrently with program delivery. National Grid is one of the largest investor-owned utilities (IOU) in the US serving more than 20 million people across New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

DNV’s solution

The evaluation approach includes research activities for each of the Electric Transportation Initiative's four programs::

  1. RI Off-Peak Charging Rebate Pilot Program: This evaluation includes a data-driven analytics component to assess EV charging behaviour as well as an econometric regression designed to quantify the impact of off-peak charging rebates on charging behaviour.
  2. Charging Station Demonstration: Evaluating the program's success in enabling the development of an EV charging network throughout RI, including assessing program progress as well as analyzing station utilization trends.
  3. Discount Pilot: Evaluating a discount rate pilot for DCFC station hosts.
  4. Fleet Advisory Services: Evaluating a program that provides fleet electrification studies for municipal vehicles, universities, and other organizations.

DNV is evaluating these pilots/programs concurrently. DNV’s primary data collection methods include analysis of charging data from EV drivers and site hosts as well as in-depth-interviews with site hosts and surveys with existing and potential EV owners. Evaluation results from the first full year of program evaluation are publicly available; additional results for future program years are expected later in 2022 and 2023.

In New York, DNV is currently assessing the EV Charging Station program’s progress in developing charging station infrastructure throughout National Grid’s NY service territory and in delivering EV education to the public. The team is completing a three-phase evaluation to support National Grid’s EV program. This analysis will quantify activated and in-development stations, as well as the utilization activity of activated stations. We are also analyzing National Grid NY’s outreach and education efforts, which include the EV Leadership Initiative targeting prospective site hosts and direct residential consumer outreach.

In Massachusetts, DNV is leading a team with support from Illume Advising and Dunsky to conduct general population surveys on EV perceptions and attitudes, with an additional focus on EV owners and charging behaviour. DNV is also analyzing EV charging data for all stations incentivized by the program to determine charging trends based on time-of-day, location, and duration across Level 2 and DCFC stations.