Flexible Service Connection enables consumers with manageable power requires to link to the grid without waiting on upgrades
OAKLAND, Calif., April 28, 2025/ PRNewswire/– As more individuals in California purchase electrical automobiles and industrial fleets shift to EVs, the requirement grows for more locations to charge them.
Pacific Gas and Electric Business has actually set up more than 6,300 EV charging ports throughout Northern and Central California through its facilities programs, and PG&E has actually developed a brand-new method to much more rapidly link EV fast-charging stations and grid-scale batteries.
PG&E’s brand-new Flexible Service Connection, or Flex Link, enables consumers with manageable power requirements, like EV battery chargers, to link to the grid without requiring to wait on capability upgrades.
Flex Link usages PG&E’s cloud-based Dispersed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) to collaborate a website’s power need based upon when electrical energy supply is easily offered. This service enables a website to link quicker, while PG&E finishes required long-lasting facilities upgrades in the location. Established and released in partnership with Microsoft and Schneider Electric, PG&E’s DERMS links to the website’s energy management system and sends out a per hour power limitation anticipated a day beforehand so that the client can prepare ahead.
” Our brand-new Flexible Service Connection offering provides customized options that finest satisfy consumers’ near-term requirements, permitting them to link without waiting on a physical facilities upgrade,” stated Mike Delaney, Vice President of Energy Collaborations and Development, PG&E. “Schneider Electric has actually shown to be a premier partner in establishing and releasing DERMS and our sophisticated circulation management system, and we have actually now developed a design template for other energies to release these abilities right out of package. This is what development and collaboration appears like and now other energies throughout the country can gain from the work taking place here at PG&E and in California“
PG&E has actually up until now sped up the connection of 4 websites through Flex Link, with a number of more in advancement.
” We are thrilled to reinforce our growing collaboration with PG&E to boost facilities and speed up the connection of EV fast-charging stations and grid-scale batteries” stated Luis D’Acosta, Executive Vice President of Digital Energy at Schneider Electric. “Schneider Electric’s DERMS offers PG&E with vital presence, forecasting, and control to simplify grid connections for consumers with vibrant power requirements, while keeping grid security and dependability”.
Powering brand-new Tesla Supercharger websites
In early 2024, Tesla looked for PG&E electrical service for a number of brand-new Supercharger stations along crucial highway travel passages. PG&E stated it would take a couple of years to update the grid to supply sufficient power where Tesla desired the websites.
However if Tesla might be versatile with their power requires, they might link the brand-new quick battery chargers quicker.
Here’s how it works:
- Tesla requests 2 megawatts (MW) of power for a brand-new Supercharger website.
- The majority of the time, the grid can supply the complete 2 MW. However throughout peak times, like hot summer season nights, the website would be restricted to 0.5 MW.
- Generally, Tesla would need to wait on grid upgrades to get the complete 2 MW all year.
- With Flex Link, Tesla links their charging website to PG&E’s grid and DERMS, which changes the power based on accessibility (utilizing a day-ahead projection). By doing this, Tesla can get the complete 2 MW immediately and almost all the time.
To date, Flex Link has actually assisted Tesla increase the capability of 2 brand-new Supercharger websites (in Santa Nella and Upper Lake, Calif.) with various extra websites in advancement.
Powering PepsiCo EV Semitruck Fleet
PepsiCo’s bottling center in Fresno, CA just recently signed up with Flex Link to get additional grid capability quicker, allowing the website to increase the charging abilities of its electrical semi-truck fleet from around 30 trucks to the complete fleet of 50.
Formerly, the website was restricted to 3 megawatts (MW) of capability during the night and no MW throughout the day while waiting on long-lasting facilities upgrades. With Flex Link, the center now gets as much as 4.5 MW the majority of the time, based upon grid accessibility, supplying vital daytime charging abilities.
Through Flex Link, PG&E assisted Pepsi unlock this extra capability 18 months earlier than initially forecasted. The long-lasting capability upgrade is anticipated to be total by June 2026, however with Flex Link, the extra power has actually been readily available for PepsiCo given that December 2024— 18 months ahead of schedule.
By stimulating 20 trucks ahead of schedule, PepsiCo approximates a decrease of around 8,000 lots of CO2 emissions and cost savings of around $ 1 million in fuel expenses. These price quotes are based upon local emissions and expense profiles from Tesla’s Semi Truck Analysis Tool.
PepsiCo has extra EV fleet websites in the line for Flex Link as it continues to advance its wider sustainability objectives.
PG&E supports its industrial consumers, like PepsiCo, to go electrical through the EV Fleet program, which assists fleet operators quickly and cost-effectively set up charging facilities to conserve cash, remove tailpipe emissions and streamline upkeep. EV Fleet is a detailed program that incorporates rewards and refunds, website style and allowing, and building and activation.
PG&E likewise just recently introduced its brand-new EV Fleet Advisory Solutions program supplying tailored help for medium and durable fleets to change to electrical lorries. PG&E fleet consultants supply individually assistance for organization consumers at any stage of their electrification journey from preparing to advancement and execution through post-energization. Clients can obtain the program through December 2026
Prepare For 2025 and Beyond
PG&E is likewise supporting the West Coast growth of New York City– based Revel, an electrical movement and facilities business, by just recently linking and powering brand-new Revel EV battery chargers in San Francsico, Oakland— and one through Flex Link in South San Francisco
In addition to faster stimulating EV charging websites, PG&E is likewise utilizing DERMS for other jobs, like versatile generation affiliation and capability deferral chances. These jobs assist prevent expensive upgrades and make the grid more effective.
In late 2024 PG&E released its very first DERMS-connected lithium-ion battery energy storage system at a substation near Yuba City, Calif. PG&E strategies to operationalize its 2nd DERMS-dispatchable battery energy storage system by mid-2025 in a location of Kern County with an overproduction of solar generation. Releasing the DERMS-controlled battery will enable excess solar generation to be kept and utilized rather of being reduced, and it will postpone the requirement for more expensive substation upgrades, extending the life of existing devices and facilities.
PG&E strategies to broaden DERMS to consist of more load management programs, like Need Reaction and Vehicle-Grid-Integration programs, as part of its long-lasting method.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Business, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation PCG, is a combined gas and electrical energy serving more than sixteen million individuals throughout 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California For additional information, visit pge.com and pge.com/news
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SOURCE Pacific Gas and Electric Business
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