Residential EV Deferred Distribution Upgrade Project (REVDDUP)

Grid Decarbonization and Decentralization Low Carbon Transportation

Weave Grid, Inc.

Recipient

Recipient Location

closed

Completed

Project Status

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Project Result

In 2025, WeaveGrid launched a customer-facing program that enrolled more than 1,400 devices, enabling distribution-optimized managed charging and delivering consistent reductions in EV peak demand. Importantly, 55 percent of participating customers are located in disadvantaged communities or are low-income, underscoring both measurable grid benefits and equitable program participation. The company is also collaborating with Southern California Edison and leading V2X OEM partners to advance vehicle-to-everything deployments planned for early 2026.

The Issue

Rapid EV adoption presents a growing challenge for utilities, as distribution infrastructure was not originally designed to accommodate widespread, high-powered EV charging. For example, in a neighborhood with high EV adoption, each Level 2 charger can effectively double a home’s peak load, and simultaneous charging may push a shared local transformer beyond its operating threshold. Such conditions can accelerate equipment aging and, in extreme cases, lead to temporary outages or asset failure. If left unmanaged, increasing EV load can strain grid resiliency and drive significant distribution upgrade costs, placing upward pressure on rates. Utility-specific analyses conducted as part of the Electrification Impacts Study (EIS) Part 2 for the California Public Utilities Commission estimate $41 billion in distribution upgrade costs under base case electrification scenarios. When demand flexibility strategies are incorporated, such as managed charging, the estimated upgrade costs fall to about $38 billion. Lowering distribution upgrade costs and maximizing use of existing infrastructure has potential to place downward pressure on rates, but the value of these load flexibility strategies remains uncertain and must be quantified.

Project Innovation

This project will demonstrate dynamic management of residential participant electric vehicle charging loads to avoid or defer costly customer and distribution grid upgrades while meeting participant needs. The demonstration will also show how software optimization of electric vehicle battery discharge capabilities for a subset of participants with bidirectional equipment can provide further distribution system value. This demonstration will be targeting deployments within low-income communities and disadvantaged communities.

Project Benefits

This project will demonstrate an advanced form of vehicle-grid integration by leveraging WeaveGrid’s existing distribution-integrated smart charging orchestration technology to coordinate the charging schedules of groups of electric vehicles in order to (1) minimize peak loads and strain on the local distribution assets serving those vehicles and (2) prioritize driver needs and electricity bill savings for customers on time-varying rates. In a second phase, the project will demonstrate residential vehicle-to-everything charging applications with a subset of participants and evaluate the additional grid value that can be captured when optimizing both battery charging and discharging. The project will also quantify incremental bill savings and distribution grid benefits achieved through managed charging and discharging with bidirectional equipment, compared with managed charging using unidirectional networked chargers and embedded vehicle telematics. In disadvantaged and low-income communities, where distribution grid investment has often lagged due to slower economic growth and chronic underinvestment, these capabilities may provide particular value by reducing strain on constrained infrastructure while expanding access to electrification.