2025 PLMA Award Winner

Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) has demonstrated exceptional national leadership in EV load management by pioneering distribution-integrated managed charging and proving its value at scale through the innovative Smart Charge Management (SCM) program.

The rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) presents both opportunities and challenges for electric utilities, particularly around distribution system impacts. A recent Department of Energy (DOE) study found that using a combination of rates and EV managed charging technologies, it is possible to reduce utility distribution system investments by 30%, with savings potentially even higher. While many EV managed charging programs today focus on load-shifting for bulk system impacts, distribution-level impacts are not typically being managed adequately. As the first managed charging program of its kind to be scaled into a permanent offering, BGE’s SCM is serving as a model for distribution-integrated EV load management for utilities nationwide.

Initially piloted from 2021-2024 with grant funding from DOE, SCM leveraged WeaveGrid’s technology to test and compare increasingly sophisticated techniques for automated managed charging:

• Phase 1: Alignment of all charging with Time-of-Use off-peak period
• Phase 2: Dynamic charging optimization using PJM day-ahead pricing forecast
• Phase 3: Advanced distribution-level load management using WeaveGrid’s patented Distribution-Integrated Smart Charge Orchestration (DISCO) technology to protect distribution assets

As predicted, the first two approaches successfully shifted EV load, with PJM pricing more accurately and dynamically reflecting generation and transmission system conditions relative to TOU periods. However, neither accounted for the stress that simultaneous, clustered EV charging places on a neighborhood’s distribution system. Phase 3 demonstrated excellence in technology adoption by leveraging WeaveGrid’s innovative DISCO technology to balance charging load within groups of EVs to reduce strain on specific distribution feeders, circuits, or transformers.

For example, in a feeder-level group with 880 vehicles, DISCO reduced coincident peak demand by 72% (from 1,090 kW to 310 kW) and non-coincident peak demand by 29% (from 1,160 kW to 830 kW) relative to what would have happened if these drivers started charging as soon as they plugged in. Similar results have been demonstrated across group types and sizes.

BGE’s thoughtful program design and implementation helped the SCM pilot quickly become one of the largest active managed charging programs in the country, with strong customer satisfaction and significant load management impacts. Key design elements included:

• Targeted marketing to known EV drivers based on WeaveGrid’s EV Detection machine learning model
• Marketing materials emphasizing the monetary value of the program
• Simple enrollment process in a mobile-responsive web-based application
• Recurring $10 monthly incentive for following SCM’s optimized, custom charging schedule at least 50% of the time

The excellence of SCM’s design and delivery can be seen in the program’s measured successes, including:

• Enrolled over 4,500 EVs by June 2024, far surpassing initial grant enrollment target of 2,000 by December 2023
• Primary enrollment motivators aligned with SCM design and marketing focus (based on customer survey results):
  • 65% cited charging at lowest cost periods
  • 61% cited the monthly bill credit
  • 40% cited optimizing charging for grid benefits
  • High customer satisfaction (4.2/5 stars for SCM alone, 4.6 stars when paired with EV-TOU) compared to EV TOU alone (3.8 stars)
  • 92% of EV charging aligned with SCM’s optimized charging schedules, meaning customers rarely chose to opt out and affirming that SCM’s custom charging schedules met customer needs while successfully shifting load to mitigate grid impacts

In August 2024, based on the substantial successes and learnings of the SCM pilot, BGE secured approval from the Maryland Public Utilities Commission to expand SCM to a permanent program with an ambitious target of 30,000 participants by 2027. The permanent program will continue to use WeaveGrid’s DISCO technology to manage EV load in a way that maximizes value across the generation, transmission, and distribution systems. A critical factor in this approval was the program’s demonstrated cost-effectiveness, achieving a score of 1.58 under the Maryland Jurisdiction Specific Test. This strong result was informed by the SCM pilot’s measurable successes in delivering savings across wholesale energy, generation, transmission, and distribution capacity costs, and can help guide other utilities’ approaches to securing approval for scaled EV load management programs. As evidenced through high customer satisfaction and proven ability to protect grid reliability while enabling rapid EV adoption, BGE’s SCM program stands as an exemplary model for scaling sophisticated, distribution-integrated EV load management solutions.