Amy: 00:00:04

Welcome to season three of MTE's Plugged in podcast.

Amy: 00:00:07

This season, we will continue to explore the world of electric vehicles.

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Whether you're a seasoned EV driver or you're just beginning your journey into electric vehicles, this podcast is for you.

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For a more enhanced experience, be sure to watch the video version of this podcast that will be linked in the show Notes.

Amy: 00:00:24

Hello and welcome to MTE's Plugged in podcast.

Amy: 00:00:28

Today, Brandon and I are going to share with you some presentations that we have recently done throughout the valley on electric vehicles.

Amy: 00:00:35

Brandon, we'll start with you.

Amy: 00:00:37

Why don't you do a little introduction to what you talked about, and then we'll talk about what my presentation is and then we'll share that with everybody.

Brandon: 00:00:45

Yeah, well, thanks, Amy.

Brandon: 00:00:47

You know, we are very fortunate that we have learned so much from a lot of our listeners and our EV Car club members, and we had the opportunity to share a lot of what we're learning to different audiences.

Brandon: 00:01:01

I was asked at the end of October to speak at a panel for Nashville Design Week, and that was held at the new Rivian facility in Nashville.

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So it was an honor to get to talk to that group.

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And a lot of what I got to share were things that you all have shared with us.

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So just wanted to introduce this clip.

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We're just going to kind of turn to that a little bit and we'll get to share that experience with our listeners today.

Amy: 00:01:28

Thanks, Brandon.

Amy: 00:01:28

And after we show that clip, we're going to give some highlights to a presentation that I was asked to participate in with Ashley England from the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Amy: 00:01:40

We were asked by the Tennessee Valley Public Power association to give a presentation at their Customer Experience Conference on our EV programs.

Amy: 00:01:50

So we're not going to show any of my presentation because as I was looking back through it, Brandon, a lot of what I said, you said in your presentation, so we're not going to make you sit through that twice, but I did.

Amy: 00:02:01

There were a few things that Ashley with TVA talked about that I thought were really good topics and real good things that I think our listeners would want to hear about.

Amy: 00:02:11

So I hope you enjoy these presentations.

Brandon: 00:02:14

I always enjoy the opportunity to speak at events like this, so I really appreciate the invitation from National Design Week and Rivian, and this space is awesome, so I really, really appreciate that.

Brandon: 00:02:24

But you know, I think, you know, headlines make news and so some of the headlines are what our folks are reading.

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And they get scared about the future of transportation, especially small vehicle electric, electrified transportation.

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But the reality is the data Tells a totally different story.

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And so what we have done, about four years ago we realized that we have the most electric vehicles of any local power company in the state of Tennessee.

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And we realized our board kind of told us we are called to be a leader in this space amongst our peers.

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So we started kind of a multifaceted approach to engaging our members who are maybe they were EV drivers or maybe they were just interested in ev.

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We wanted to be resource.

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So we have, in that meantime we have started an EV car club.

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And that's how I actually got a chance to meet with and make a relationship with Rivian.

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We have over 625 members as part of this EV car club now.

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And we'll meet several times throughout the year.

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And just, it's just about learning from each other and sharing these experiences.

Brandon: 00:03:31

My father in law, it was his idea, he used to build classic cars and he had this great observation.

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He said people that have EVs are as passionate about their vehicles as people that have classic cars.

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And I thought, you know, everyone I know that has an ev, they want to show that off and share that experience with everybody.

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So we started that and as we started learning from our members, we realized some pain points they wanted us to help with.

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One of them was an increase in local DC fast charging.

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So we have just commissioned our second DC fast charging station.

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We did one earlier this year.

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We're going to do a third one.

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n Curd lane in quarter one of: 2025

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And each one of these are four charging dispensers capable of 150 kilowatts per dispenser.

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So pretty excited about that.

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And then we created an EV rate.

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And this is where I really wanted to share with you all this story behind the data of EV drivers.

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What we sort of Learned was that EVs just a quick little just caveat before I jump into this part.

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For local power companies, our demand is driven by our residential load.

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And so what that means is on really hot days when everybody's running their air conditioning, we'll set a peak.

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And really cold days when people are running their heat pumps or sometimes their resistive heat to get that heat pump primed up will set a peak.

Brandon: 00:05:04

And so ideally what we don't want to have is charging load at the same time as those taxing H Vac load.

Brandon: 00:05:13

But if you can diversify that load and there's a metric you can measure that's called load factor.

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You can raise your load factor.

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And it does a couple of things.

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One it is it lowers our cost to serve each member and we can share those savings with these members who can move their peak overnight.

Brandon: 00:05:30

The other thing it can do is it allows us to continue to serve a growing energy consumption without having to over build all of our infrastructure.

Brandon: 00:05:40

And so about 18 months ago we launched our night flex rate which was a price signal that every night at 10pm you could get a 3 cent reduction per kilowatt hour on your.

Brandon: 00:05:53

So if, let's say that the rate is 10 cents, you would pay 7 cents between 10pm and 4am and then the rest of the time instead of 10 cents, you'd pay 11 cents.

Brandon: 00:06:02

But what we have seen from folks who have adopted it, some people are saving up to 15% on their electricity usage and their bills.

Brandon: 00:06:09

And simply by telling these very smart devices don't start charging until 10pm and it also saves us money, it prevents us from having to overbuild our services.

Brandon: 00:06:20

So we're trying to, because I think in terms of sustainability we don't generate energy, but what we do is try to utilize efficiently what we do have so that we can build a grid that is efficient.

Brandon: 00:06:36

And there is a.

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Whether or not that meets the definition of sustainability certainly goes hand in hand with that effort too.

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Make a very smart next generation energy consumption profile.

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And I do want to share one more thing, and I'll pass the microphone, but I said we don't generate energy.

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ine either towards the end of: 2026

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So this will be the largest solar array that any local power company in the TVA region owns.

Brandon: 00:07:18

And we're really excited about that project.

Speaker C: 00:07:22

First, just want to kind of contextualize, you know, why are we talking about this, why is it important to us?

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And the reality is that EV adoption is on the rise.

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As you can see here, nearly 40% of consumers say that they are considering an EV for their next car purchase.

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And that's just in the U.S.

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and then by: 2025

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is projected to have over 15 million EVs on the road right now.

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Or as of: 2023

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million total as of: 2023

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In our region.

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% total, but that was in: 2023

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So year over year, it's just growing and picking up steam.

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And adoption is really beginning to snowball here too.

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We currently have about 60,000 EVs on valley roadways.

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ecast EV adoption say that by: 2028

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So EVs are picking up steam.

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And if we want to be on the forefront with all the pros and maybe some of the possible downsides that they bring, we need to position ourselves and be authorities on this subject to provide real information because EVs can bring a lot of benefits to our communities.

Speaker C: 00:08:56

I did want to also just share the investment from EV manufacturing in our area of the country is really tremendous.

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And that in and of itself offers a really great benefit to communities.

Speaker C: 00:09:09

When you see the Volkswagens and blue oval cities, Fords, you see battery developers, all that.

Speaker C: 00:09:17

There's a tremendous amount of manufacturing and economic development that is going on with EVs in our area.

Speaker C: 00:09:22

So again, it's another reason to consider EVs and how you can position yourselves and prepare your communities for them.

Speaker C: 00:09:30

How does that look locally and what does that look like?

Speaker C: 00:09:32

Again, that mid range forecast, which so far has turned out to be about true, right?

Speaker C: 00:09:36

There are people who have forecast, oh, they're going to take over everything.

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And some say, oh, they're never going to get adopted at the rate so far the medium range forecast is showing to be true.

Speaker C: 00:09:47

ehicles on Valley roadways by: 2028

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So what does that mean?

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What does that bring with it?

Speaker C: 00:09:58

Well, it brings $120 million invested annually in the local economy through the fuel that EVs run on electricity.

Speaker C: 00:10:07

So that's a real benefit to all of us in this room, right?

Speaker C: 00:10:10

That's bringing keeping dollars in our communities.

Speaker C: 00:10:13

It also promises over $200 million in consumer fuel savings annually.

Speaker C: 00:10:18

Electric vehicles are cheaper to fuel than internal combustion engines.

Speaker C: 00:10:23

And then the fourth bullet that I know is kind of where the anxiety comes in is around the load growth.

Speaker C: 00:10:29

ipated load growth for EVs by: 2028

Speaker C: 00:10:34

If we hit this number, it's looking like it's about 0.5% load growth.

Speaker C: 00:10:39

But I like to remind everybody with that growth, that's a very flexible and favorable load shape in all reality and a lot of energy storage potential.

Speaker C: 00:10:51

So we've been doing research, tva, we've partnered with EPRI to look at real world data here in the valley of how actual EV drivers are charging, how is their demand looking and what we found, we did research on 600 Valley EVs that ultimately most charging happens off peak.

Speaker C: 00:11:11

81% in our sample happened off peak.

Speaker C: 00:11:15

It's primarily level 2 residential charging which happens overnight.

Speaker C: 00:11:20

So it's ultimately likely to be a very favorable load shape for all of us and does not necessarily bring with it the dire grid impacts that maybe some people have concerns about and maybe some people even inside your own organizations have some concerns about.

Speaker C: 00:11:35

And the reality is if we can get ahead of this and if we can manage those relationships, we have even more potential to impact that load shape as vehicle to grid managed bidirectional charging becomes more possible.

Speaker C: 00:11:49

So technology is advancing in those areas.

Speaker C: 00:11:53

So I think the first thing is to build awareness.

Speaker C: 00:11:56

What do your communities, your residents members know about EVs?

Speaker C: 00:12:01

We've done a lot of research.

Speaker C: 00:12:02

Before we launched kind of our EV consumer awareness journey, we did a lot of in depth research.

Speaker C: 00:12:06

We interviewed dozens of folks across the urban, rural divide, political divide, every demographic group, to really get a deeper understanding and real world conversation around what are their fears.

Speaker C: 00:12:20

If you have an ev, why do you like it, et cetera.

Speaker C: 00:12:23

And these are the most common things you're going to hear about.

Speaker C: 00:12:26

Range anxiety, grid capacity, that's a little bit newer, but we're hearing it more affordability, performance and environmental impact.

Speaker C: 00:12:37

The point that I kind of want to make about all these is that we actually probably have really strong information and evidence to share for why some of these things may not be as concerning as people think they are.

Speaker C: 00:12:47

Range anxiety, we are doing what we can.

Speaker C: 00:12:51

Tva, hopefully.

Speaker C: 00:12:52

You know, we've invested in the Fast Charge network.

Speaker C: 00:12:55

Many partners in this room I know have signed on to build infrastructure in their area to enable fast charging every 50 miles on all major highways and interstates across the TVA region.

Speaker C: 00:13:08

Super excited about that.

Speaker C: 00:13:09

We've gotten 100 chargers officially online, 42 sites.

Speaker C: 00:13:13

We still have some gaps.

Speaker C: 00:13:15

So if you have not signed up, if you think your local power company might be interested, please let me know.

Speaker C: 00:13:19

I'd love to connect you with Drew Fry, who is our EV king.

Speaker C: 00:13:24

He's a nationally renowned expert on electric vehicles.

Speaker C: 00:13:29

So range anxiety, it's A legitimate concern, but it is something that is getting addressed.

Speaker C: 00:13:33

Infrastructure is growing out by the day.

Speaker C: 00:13:39

Grid capacity, like I said, we have real great information now on actual charging behaviors and we are seeing that this is not the concern that people think it might be.

Speaker C: 00:13:49

EVs on Valley Roadways by: 2028

Speaker C: 00:13:57

It's ultimately good for the grid.

Speaker C: 00:13:59

It's also ultimately good for affordability, affordability of vehicles.

Speaker C: 00:14:03

A lot of this is based off people and what they see, right?

Speaker C: 00:14:06

They see the Teslas and the Rivians and the higher end models.

Speaker C: 00:14:10

What they don't realize is an ID4 costs less than a Camry or a Corolla.

Speaker C: 00:14:16

There are more affordable models coming out.

Speaker C: 00:14:18

And so that's grown a lot and that's going to continue to grow.

Speaker C: 00:14:22

Performance.

Speaker C: 00:14:23

I also hear a lot people think, they think of Priuses, they make that association, you know, like, oh, I hate to get behind a Prius getting on the interstate on ramp, you know, and they don't realize, you know, that these are really fun, really zippy driving machines.

Speaker C: 00:14:37

You know, they've got near instant torque and they compete with internal combustion engines with no problem.

Speaker C: 00:14:44

And then finally environmental impact again, I think this is one where people are concerned about lithium ion batteries.

Speaker C: 00:14:51

They and the growth of that or what's going to happen with these old batteries.

Speaker C: 00:14:55

Some of that I think is a little emotional.

Speaker C: 00:14:57

I mean everybody has a lithium ion battery in their pocket or their purse right now because they're in all of our technologies.

Speaker C: 00:15:05

And so some of that is people, I think, feeling like electric vehicles are maybe an affront to them in some way.

Speaker C: 00:15:12

But the reality is all the research shows that net EVs are a positive.

Speaker C: 00:15:17

They net release less CO2.

Speaker C: 00:15:20

So ultimately, again, with facts and information and evidence, we might be able to help people feel more comfortable with these concerns.

Speaker C: 00:15:27

One thing I really get excited about is our Driving Evolution blog series.

Speaker C: 00:15:31

So as I said, we did all this great consumer market research to figure out what people in our region, real people in our area, cared about.

Speaker C: 00:15:38

And the first thing we did from that was create a really fun video series where we had kind of special guest hosts test driving electric vehicles along with what I might call like B list, maybe C list celebrities, influencers.

Speaker C: 00:15:53

So it was hosted by Trevor Bain, who's a NASCAR driver.

Speaker C: 00:15:56

He was really down to do it.

Speaker C: 00:15:58

He was fantastic to work with.

Speaker C: 00:15:59

So we rolled out our video series.

Speaker C: 00:16:01

Those are available if you have any interest in those, we're happy to provide them.

Speaker C: 00:16:05

You can embed them on your website.

Speaker C: 00:16:06

But we decided as the questions and as we interacted with people more, we felt like this really lent itself to long form content.

Speaker C: 00:16:13

I think MTE sees that too.

Speaker C: 00:16:15

A podcast, right?

Speaker C: 00:16:16

So that's why we said let's go ahead and launch this blog series and really dig into it.

Speaker C: 00:16:21

We wanted to educate people, answer their questions and we wanted it to be fun.

Speaker C: 00:16:26

We wanted to feel really approachable, but also be very fact driven and unbiased.

Speaker C: 00:16:32

So it's a very well sourced, very highly linked to our sources throughout.

Speaker C: 00:16:37

And this year we expanded our blog to include guest bloggers that are industry experts on topics that we felt like it would really be best to bring in somebody who's an expert on this.

Speaker C: 00:16:47

So some of the topics that we cover, similar to what MTE's doing here, home, destination, charging, how to install a charger, what to look for batteries and how they work, the financial, economic and environmental benefits.

Speaker C: 00:17:02

We have a whole terminology blog.

Speaker C: 00:17:04

There's a lot of terminology involved.

Speaker C: 00:17:07

We have one on tips from EV owners, tax rebates, grid impacts, and more.

Brandon: 00:17:13

Well, we hope you enjoyed those clips.

Brandon: 00:17:15

And you know, from Amy and I, we just, we're honored to be able to represent not only mte, but all of our members, all of our car club members in these different audiences.

Brandon: 00:17:26

When we started this podcast and the car club, our goal was to be a resource for all of our listeners.

Brandon: 00:17:32

And what we've learned is that we've actually become a resource for other folks in our industry.

Brandon: 00:17:38

And that's mostly because of what you all have shared with us.

Brandon: 00:17:42

So thank you all for the opportunities you've given us to hopefully represent you all well.

Amy: 00:17:47

Right.

Amy: 00:17:47

And one thing, you know, as you said, in my particular instance, I was talking to people in other utilities, you know, that, that have programs or don't have programs.

Amy: 00:17:58

And I was surprised when even asking the question, you know, raise your hand if y'all have something about EVs on your website.

Amy: 00:18:06

And there were not a lot of hands raised, you know, so in a lot of areas in the state, people are just starting to dip their toe into the EV world.

Amy: 00:18:14

You know, we're.

Amy: 00:18:17

What I found out was that we really are kind of ahead of the game and that is 100% based on the adoption that our members have done.

Amy: 00:18:26

You know, they've made us kind of push into that maybe a little bit faster than others because they're here, the EVs are here, and we want to be that resource for everybody.

Amy: 00:18:35

So thanks for listening today.

Amy: 00:18:38

If you have any questions about MTE's EV Ready program, the Night Flex rate, or anything EV related, email us@evcarclubte.com and for more information on MTE's Drive EV programs or the EvCar Club, visit drive EV.com and until next time, plug in, power up and drive Safe.