MAY 10 - 23, 2019
ENERGY
Northeast expects electric vehicle sales spike
EV adoption depends on awareness of capabilities, infrastructure build-out
BY LIISA RAJALA
New Hampshire is among several
states in the Northeast moving forward
with plans to install more charging sta-
tions, and that move could cause a spike
in electric vehicle sales, according to a
study conducted by “Drive Change. Drive
Electric,” a public-private partnership be-
tween auto manufacturers and the North-
east states.
Currently, electric vehicle sales make
up about 2% of new vehicle purchases
in the region, but a survey of consumers
showed 63% of millennials are consider-
ing an electric car when shopping for a
new vehicle, up dramatically from 38% of
baby boomers.
“To date, electric car sales have been
dominated by Gen-X men,” said Julia
NE Rege, senior director of environment and
energy at the Association of Global Auto-
makers, in a press release. “However, with
two out of three Millennials considering
an electric car for their next vehicle, we
could see a substantial shift in the mar-
ketplace. This promising news suggests
that we are on the brink of a technology
revolution that will ultimately be driven
by millennials.”
And boomers won’t be far behind once
they learn more about the technology,
said Rege.
Approximately 53% of Northeastern-
ers (and 64% of women in the region)
say they don’t feel knowledgeable about
electric vehicles.
‘Future is bright’
One of the biggest barriers to purchase
has been concern about the charging in-
frastructure. More than 80% of Northeast
drivers are concerned about the distance
they can drive an electric vehicle before
recharging, and 79% of millennials and
87% of baby boomers in the Northeast
believe there are not enough charging
stations available — though almost half
of survey respondents have noticed an
increase in available charging stations in
their local areas.
The “Drive Change. Drive Electric” cam-
paign — whose partners include 16 major
automakers as well as the state of New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York,
Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont and
New Jersey — aims to advance consumer
awareness, understanding, consideration
and adoption of electric cars, including
battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric
and fuel cell electric vehicles.
“Automakers offer over 40 models of
23
electric cars in almost every vehicle seg-
ment from SUVs to sedans and many
more are coming over the next few
years,” said Steve Douglas, senior direc-
tor of energy and environment at the
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.
“Customers can also choose from bat-
tery electric vehicles that can go 250
miles on a single charge, plug-in hybrid
electric vehicles that offer a combined
range from electricity and gasoline to
up to 600 miles, and fuel cell electric
vehicles that can go up to 350 miles on
a single tank of hydrogen.”
“Although we know the future is bright
for electric cars, the need for education
and awareness of the benefits of driv-
ing electric has reached a critical point,”
said Elaine O’Grady, policy and program
director at the Northeast States for Co-
ordinated Use Management, in a press
release. “Through the ‘Drive Change.
Drive Electric’ campaign, states and auto-
makers are working together to increase
awareness, instill confidence and make
the switch to electric an easy choice for
drivers of all ages today.
EV SALES, PAGE 24
 24 N EW HAM PSH I R E B USI N ESS R EVI EW
Sharpen Your Focus on Energy Efficiency ENERGY
Rate design: the fun phase
HVAC
HEAT PUMPS of any rate case
WEATHERIZATION How regulators try to reconcile competing
LED LIGHTING policy imperatives
EV CHARGERS BY D. MAURICE KREIS
ELECTRIC VEHICLES What’s wrong with the following scenar-
ios?
COMPRESSED AIR • Your local trattoria, which offers deli-
cious Italian food at an affordable price, has
an hour-long wait for a table at 6:30 p.m.
but is virtually empty for the first hour it is
open every evening, from 5:00 to 6:00.
UNTRY LAKES REGION NASHUA REGION • A miracle drug, which dramatically
Whatever your office goals, NHEC has incentives improves outcomes for patients with an
otherwise incurable chronic illness, costs
available for NEW and RETROFIT projects. $300,000 per year for each patient taking
Energy efficiency measures can have the drug.
• The most inexpensive summer camp
BUSINESS TECH, ARCHITECTURE,aENGINEERING,
direct impact onBANKING,
HOSPITALS, your PERSONAL
bottomFINANCE,
line. ENERGY in the area is so popular that the available
OW: FEATURE STORY AND JUMPS, IN BRIEF, FLOTSAM, LAW, OPINIONS, THE LATEST, ABOUT TOWN places in the camp fill up within minutes of
: REAL ESTATE + CONSTRUCTION, EDUCATION, HEALTHCARE, TOURISM, NEWS, CHARITABLE GIVING, MORE ONLINE online registration commencing.
Visit www.nhec.com
W: AREA GRAPHICS, another TOURISM choice, CALENDAR, LAST WORD • A daily newspaper offers an online sub-
scription for $221 a year — a discount of $9
for your energy efficiency needs!
1.800.698.2007
from the rate for the paper delivered to your
home the old-fashioned way.
To those of us in the world of utility regula-
tion, the answer is clear: These are examples
of rate design gone haywire.
I recently wrote about two impending rate
cases at the New Hampshire Public Utilities
Commission, both involving electric distri-
bution service. Eversource Energy and Lib-
erty Utilities are seeking increases in what
they charge customers for the poles, wires
and other equipment they provide on a mo-
nopoly basis to their customers.
The cases require the PUC to determine
each utility’s revenue requirement — basically,
Problems
how much money the utility needs to receive
from customers each year to cover its oper-
ating expenses, make required payments to
Solved.
lenders and have money left over to provide
a reasonable return to shareholders.
But that’s only Act I of a rate case — and,
in some ways, it’s the less interesting half of
Budget Document Technology is an industry
the drama. The rest of a rate case is about
leader in providing digital solutions for rate design — the process by which that an-
document creation, production & distribution.
FROM PAGE 23
• Multifunctional Color & B&W Copiers
Growing infrastructure
• Printers & Scanners Funds from the Volkswagen Settlement
• Postage & Mailing Equipment are accelerating the build-out of charging
infrastructure in states across the country.
• Software & Network Solutions “In the Northeast, hundreds of millions
• Managed Print Services of dollars are being invested in build-
ing out charging infrastructure to meet
growing demand,” said O’Grady. “In the last
year alone, the number of public charging
Local Decisions. On Budget!
stations increased by more than 20% in the
Serving Since 1989 Northeast, and there are plans to add even
more stations in 2019.”
However, in most cases electric cars are
Manchester NH 800-346-7890 bdtme.com charged at home overnight, she said. “In
● N H B R.C O M
nual revenue requirement is translated into
the actual prices you pay on your monthly bill.
Rate design principles
Consider, for example, the $8 million rate
increase Liberty is seeking, which would
bring its annual electric distribution revenue
requirement to roughly $48 million. The
simplest possible rate design would consist
of dividing that $48 million by the number
of electric customers and sending each of
them a bill every year for that amount.
Since Liberty, the state’s smallest electric
utility, has about 43,000 customers, that
would mean everyone gets an annual bill for
roughly $1,116 — or $93 a month — to cover
distribution service.
How fabulous that would be for Liberty’s
biggest customers! Think, for example, of
Dartmouth College, with its thousands of
students, dozens of buildings, hundreds
of employees and billions in endowment.
What a disaster it would be for a residential
customer living on a fixed income and using
a modest amount of electricity a month.
James C. Bonbright, who died in 1996
after a distinguished career as a Columbia
University finance professor and chair of
the New York State Power Authority, is the
acknowledged godfather of rate design,
author of his famous treatise, “Principles of
Public Utility Rates.”
The Bonbright rate design principles ba-
sically come down to four imperatives, as
summarized by the consulting firm Synapse
Energy Economics:
• Rates should produce enough revenue
to cover the utility’s costs as determined in
the first phase of the rate case.
•  Rates should be fair — i.e., the utility’s
costs should be fairly apportioned among
the various kinds of customers. Sorry, Dart-
mouth (in light of my example above). >
any event, the fact that people are noticing
more charging stations in their communi-
ties is encouraging and a clear indicator
that we are making significant progress to-
ward raising awareness and building con-
fidence that public charging stations are
available.”
The study found 80% of Northeastern-
ers would be more likely to consider EVs
if there were more charging stations avail-
able in their area. Another big purchase
motivator for 80% of millennials as well as
boomers is the national and state finan-
cial incentive programs, which include tax
credits and rebates.
Liisa Rajala can be reached at lrajala@nhbr.com.
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