VEC, Camus and FlexCharging Partner to Ease EV Adoption
VEC, with partners Camus Energy and FlexCharging, announced today a new electric vehicle (EV) management program to expand demand flexibility and protect critical grid infrastructure. By integrating FlexCharging’s telematics and recruitment capabilities with Camus’s grid orchestration platform, VEC aims to engage 75 percent of its members’ electric vehicles in the utility’s managed charging program, lowering costs for all of its 33,000 members across 75 communities.
The new program launched this month and complements VEC’s existing EV charger installation and enrollment program with a more flexible, lower-cost approach. The use of telematics expands the range of eligible vehicles to 23 electric vehicle manufacturers and reduces EV enrollment costs for the cooperative.
FlexCharging, a global leader in vehicle telematics, will enable the enrollment of EVs and provision of on-bill credits through the company’s integration with VEC’s member billing platform. Grid orchestration platform Camus will leverage the aggregated telematics data from FlexCharging to drive semi-autonomous dispatch of local energy resources, harnessing the latent flexibility of EV chargers to proactively manage local grid capacity. This approach improves reliability and allows the member-owned utility to avoid or defer expensive capital upgrades by mitigating overloading of existing infrastructure.
“This is a crucial step forward toward VEC’s transition to reliable, affordable, and 100 percent renewable energy, allowing us to expand our EV program from strictly peak shaving to reducing infrastructure investment,” said Cyril Brunner, Innovation and Technology Leader at VEC. “This provides our members with the opportunity for a smooth transition to fully electric transportation,” he said. “The partnership between FlexCharging and Camus Energy enables us to maintain reliability even as we see demand rise with more EVs. This means fewer equipment upgrades and ultimately cost savings for our members.”
“Managing the cost of electrification is an increasingly pressing challenge for distribution grid operators and planners across the country. Fortunately for VEC’s members, they’re addressing the challenge head on with this program,” said Steven Brisley, VP of Marketing at Camus. “Camus’ grid orchestration platform is a perfect complement to FlexCharging’s EV enrollment, engagement, and telematics-based managed charging capabilities, providing an end-to-end solution for utilities looking to engage EV drivers to support a more reliable and affordable grid.”
“This is our bread and butter at FlexCharging, making EV enrollment and demand management fast and easy,” said Jossi Fritz-Mauer, Director of Program Management at FlexCharging. “With this new program, VEC can easily and immediately gather comprehensive EV data and manage demand. FlexCharging is dedicated to helping connect, manage, and aggregate the diverse array of customer resources as adoption of electrification, energy storage, and other distributed energy resources continues.”
For more information, contact Jake Brown at [email protected] or Cyril Brunner at [email protected]