SCE Receives State Approval for Four Electric Transportation Pilots

The projects are part of the company’s strategy to help reduce
greenhouse gas and air pollution.

ROSEMEAD, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Southern California Edison received approval today to move forward on
four pilot projects that will help to expand electric transportation.
Transportation electrification is key to meeting California’s 2030
greenhouse gas and air pollution reduction
goals.

The pilot projects approved today by the California
Public Utilities Commission for about $4 million each are part of a
much larger plan to expand the electrification of cars, buses, medium-
and heavy-duty trucks, and industrial vehicles and equipment that the
company filed with the commission last January.

“Our strategy is to, one, increase the use of renewable clean energy,
and, two, increasingly use that clean electric energy to reduce the use
of fossil fuels in other sectors of the economy — especially
transportation,” said SCE President Ron Nichols. “Electrifying
transportation represents the largest near-term opportunity to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and drive down pollution that impacts public
health.”

The pilots that have been approved include:

• Customer rebate for residential charging station installation. SCE
  will provide rebates to residential customers living in single-family
  residences or smaller multi-unit dwellings to install the electrical
  infrastructure required in a garage or at a dedicated parking space to
  support electric vehicle charging. The rebates would alleviate the
  cost of installing a new circuit and, for some customers, the cost of
  a new panel.
• Transit bus electrification. SCE will install
  infrastructure and provide rebates toward the purchase of the charging
  stations for buses. This one-year project will focus specifically on
  progressive transit agencies that are already preparing to receive
  electric buses and will provide charging infrastructure to speed
  adoption of electric transit buses.
• Port electrification projects. At the Port of Long Beach, SCE
  will install necessary infrastructure for the electrification of
  equipment used to unload and move goods containers from ships to
  off-port transportation vehicles currently powered by diesel engines.
• Urban DC Fast Charger (DCFC) clusters. SCE will work with
  program participants to install five DC fast-charge sites in urban
  areas. Each site will have up to five dual-port charging stations for
  a total of 50 DC fast-charge ports. The sites will be located in
  publicly accessible urban locations — for example, downtown or near
  high-density apartments.

The investments are designed to help move California closer to its 2030
climate change goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent
below 1990 levels. Supporting the shift to electrification will also
help reduce tailpipe emissions that contribute to violations of federal
health-based ozone standards in Southern California.

Part of the plan still awaiting approval from the commission is a $550
million investment program for medium- and heavy-duty vehicle charging
to help grow the transportation electrification market over a five-year
period. In addition to supporting trucks, this program also calls for
investments in plug-in buses, forklifts and other off-road equipment. A
decision on the larger portion of the plan is expected later this year.

The plan is tailored to Southern California, where 40 percent of the
goods entering the nation are moved through the region’s ports and over
its highways. While crucially important to the state and local economy,
the goods movement industry is a major source of greenhouse gas
emissions and air pollution from heavy-duty commercial and industrial
vehicles at ports, warehouses and along freeway corridors. Hence, the
plan particularly focuses on communities that are disproportionately
affected by pollution and economic hardship, often located along
transportation corridors.

The transportation electrification plan is a key component of the clean
energy vision SCE recently laid out in a white paper entitled “The
Clean Power and Electrification Pathway,” which calls for more than
7 million electric vehicles in California and an electric grid that is
supplied by 80 percent carbon-free energy.

“These pilot projects will allow us to look at solutions to address some
of the biggest challenges to electrifying California’s trucks, buses and
cars,” said Katie Sloan, SCE principal manager of Product Development &
Division Management, who oversees the pilots. “And, every fossil-fuel
burning vehicle that is removed from California’s roadways contributes
to better health for the many Californians who live near our freeways
and transportation corridors.”

Because the transportation sector accounts for half of California’s
greenhouse gas emissions and more than 80 percent of its air pollution,
electric vehicles will become increasingly beneficial to the environment
as more renewable resources are added to the grid, said Sloan.

Contacts

Southern California Edison
Paul Griffo, (626) 302-2255