To optimize charging of its electric vehicles, Hawaiian Electric is partnering with AMPLY Power on a pilot to manage charging infrastructure for four of its vehicles, which are part of the passenger fleet that is set to be fully electric by 2035.
The pilot program is unique for both AMPLY Power and Hawaiian Electric, as it utilizes the industry standard of OpenADR (Open Automated Demand Response) to optimize vehicles charging on the system. Elemental Excelerator, a commercialization catalyst for growth-stage climate technology companies, facilitated and contributed funding to the venture.
AMPLY’s Charging-as-a-Service will ensure that Hawaiian Electric’s four passenger EVs in this pilot are fully charged and ready to drive at the beginning of each day for minimum cost and minimum impact to the grid. The vehicles being used in the project are three Kia Niros, and one Nissan LEAF. Hawaiian Electric is expected to leverage data from the pilot to inform its electrification efforts for its five-island service territory.
“Transportation accounts for nearly two-thirds of imported petroleum and discharges over half of our greenhouse gas emissions. That makes this pilot an integral part of our effort to transition our own passenger vehicle fleet to electric by 2035 and bring carbon neutrality to our islands by 2045,” said Aki Marceau, Hawaiian Electric director of Electrification of Transportation. “We look forward to working with AMPLY and using the data collected to encourage other commercial fleets in the state to transition to electric as well.”
Certified by the OpenADR Alliance, AMPLY Power’s cloud-management software platform uses secure, two-way OpenADR communication specifications. With the software, the utility can turn the electric vehicles charging on its grid into a resource that can respond to load demands in real-time. Additionally, AMPLY Power can utilize optimization capabilities that modulate load demand to decrease energy consumption as needed and reveal targeted consumption points.
AMPLY Power’s Charging-as-a-Service removes the complexities of electrification for fleets by managing the entire planning, financing, and charging process for customers. AMPLY simplifies electrification by bundling the capital expenditures and complexity associated with establishing electric vehicle charging infrastructure, including utility interconnection, operations and maintenance, energy cost, and more, into a fixed price-per-electric-mile-driven usage fee.
Hawaiian Electric joins a growing list of customers for AMPLY’s CaaS business. AMPLY currently manages charging for public transit fleets such as the City of Anaheim, Tri Delta Transit, and SolTrans, in California and an all-electric school bus fleet in New York City with Logan Bus Company. The company was awarded a spot on the Cleantech Group’s Global Cleantech 100 list in 2020 and 2021 as an innovative company in its sector.
