Maine transportation electrification pilot RFP

Maine utility regulators have asked for proposals for pilot programs to support the beneficial electrification of the transportation sector: substituting electricity for fossil fuels in ways that provide benefits like improved grid efficiency, reduced consumer costs or emissions.

While Maine's electricity generation sector is largely decarbonized (accounting for just 9 percent of the state's greenhouse gas emissions in 2017), transportation and heating lag significantly: Maine's transportation sector was responsible for 53 percent of the state's greenhouse gas emissions in 2017, with heating taking the next greatest share.

Earlier this year, the Maine state legislature enacted An Act to Support Electrification of Certain Technologies for the Benefit of Maine Consumers and Utility Systems and the Environment, P.L. 2019, ch. 365. The law includes several measures designed to support the "beneficial electrification" in Maine's transportation and heating sectors, defined as "electrification of a technology that results in reduction in the use of a fossil fuel, including electrification of a technology that would otherwise require energy from a fossil fuel, and that provides a benefit to a utility, a ratepayer or the environment, without causing harm to utilities, ratepayers or the environment, by improving the efficiency of the electricity grid or reducing consumer costs or emissions, including carbon emissions."

Section 5 of the Act directs the Maine Public Utilities Commission to seek proposals for pilot programs to support the beneficial electrification of Maine’s transportation sector. The law requires the Commission to request proposals from utilities and from entities that are not utilities, including the Efficiency Maine Trust, for pilot programs that are limited in duration and scope to support beneficial electrification of Maine's transportation sector. It provides that proposals may address electric vehicle chargers that make use of load management, utility investment in electricity delivery infrastructure for fast-charge direct-current technology, fees for this service, and recommended opportunities for deployment. It also requires the Commission to complete a review of the implemented pilot program by December 1, 2022.

On August 28, 2019, the Commission issued its Request for Proposals for Pilot Programs to Support Beneficial Electrification of the Transportation Sector. It calls for proposals to be submitted no later than November 20, 2019. The RFP says the Commission will accept or reject proposals by March 1, 2020, based on an evaluation of criteria including the extent to which they are likely to result in information and data that will inform future efforts for beneficial electrification of the transportation sector, the bidder team's relevant experience, the cost and funding source, and the schedule and duration (including the bidder's ability to report on the results sufficiently in advance of December 1, 2022).

Separately, another section of the Act directs the Efficiency Maine Trust to conduct a study of barriers to the beneficial electrification of Maine's transportation and heating sectors. The Trust has issued a Request for Information to inform that study, with written comments requested by September 18, 2019.