Resilient EV fleets

Keep your fleet charging

Resiliency planning overview

Electric vehicle (EV) fleet operators need charged vehicles to keep services running. This includes emergency response, public transit, commercial delivery or city services. Power outages can stop EVs from charging. These outages may include wildfires, storms, floods, earthquakes, Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) or scheduled maintenance. EV fleet resilience means preparing your fleet to keep critical vehicles operating when grid power, chargers or communications are unavailable.

Our online guide will help you plan for outages. It explains how to assess your outage risk, understand your energy needs and set up a response plan. It also explains software and charging options and compares resiliency hardware technologies. Some options are low-cost and easy to start. Others may cost more and take more planning. You'll also find frequently asked questions, real-world case studies and PG&E resources to help you move from planning to action.

Resiliency planning steps

Use this six-step process to move from outage risk to a tested resiliency plan.

Resilient EV Fleets resiliency planning overview showing a multi step process: assess outage risk, understand business impact, decide whether a resiliency plan is needed, develop the plan, test and implement solutions, and monitor and improve resilience

These steps explain what information to collect for vendor discussions, PG&E advisory support and the EV Fleet Resiliency Assessment Tool.

1. Assess energy need and outage risk

Analyze relevant fleet data to determine how much energy each site needs during an outage. Find out how likely your site is to lose power during planned and unplanned outages. Then decide how much downtime your fleet can handle.

Connect with PG&E Advisory Services to discuss outage information and planning resources. Email: EVAdvisoryServices@pge.com.

2. Understand the business impact

Evaluate how critical your EV fleet operations are and determine how much downtime your organization can tolerate. Estimate the financial and operational impact of different outage scenarios on your business processes and services.

In the Assessment section below, review outage propensity, vehicle operations and energy use and state of charge requirements for how to analyze your outage risk and fleet energy needs.

3. Decide if resiliency adoption is needed

Use your fleet data, outage risk and business impact analysis to decide if your fleet can handle outages or needs resiliency solutions.

4. Develop your resiliency plan

Choose resiliency options that fit your energy needs, budget and risk tolerance. Options may include permanent or temporary backup power, public or private charging and charging software. Create a formal process for how to detect outages, prepare for them and respond.

In the Planning section below, review off-site charging, backup power sources, upfront costs and ongoing expenses to evaluate resiliency options and costs.

EV Fleet Resiliency Assessment Tool - coming soon

EV Resiliency Consultancy - coming soon

5. Test and implement

Test your chosen solutions on a smaller scale first. You can start at one site or with a small group of vehicles. Use a practice outage to confirm that it works. Then expand the solution and train your team on how to respond.

6. Monitor and improve your resiliency plan

Review and update your resiliency plan regularly to stay up to date with your EV operations and fleet size, lessons learned from outage events and new technologies as they become available.

Key factors for resiliency planning

Use these key factors to carry out the six-step EV fleet resiliency process.

Assessment

Vehicle operations and energy use

Use fleet tracking data to record each vehicle's daily miles, type and operating hours. Estimate energy use in kilowatt-hours (kWh). Then identify sites where an outage could prevent needed charging.

View the EV Fleet Charging Guidebook (PDF)

Outage propensity

The appropriate resiliency solution depends on how often and how long both unplanned and planned outages occur, available site space, fleet energy needs and the amount of downtime the organization can accept.

View electric reliability reports

State of charge requirements

State of charge (SOC) means how much battery charge a vehicle has. Estimate the share of usable battery energy consumed by multiplying miles traveled by energy use per mile and dividing by usable battery capacity. Subtract that share from the starting SOC. Compare the expected end-of-shift SOC to outage propensity to confirm vehicles have sufficient stored energy.

Planning

Off-site charging

Nearby public and partner charging stations can be a simple and lower-cost backup option when your depots lose power. Check whether off-site chargers are open, close enough to use and powerful enough to support fleet operations during an outage.

Find EV charging stations

Backup power sources

Backup power sources can be either permanent or temporary. Permanent systems, also referred to as "stationary," are installed and stay on site. Temporary systems, also known as "mobile," can be brought in during outages. The best option depends on the likelihood of an outage in your area, site space, EV fleet energy needs and risk tolerance.

Upfront costs and ongoing expenses

Upfront costs include buying and installing resiliency systems, including backup power sources, software and site equipment. Ongoing costs cover maintenance, inspections and fuel. Federal, state and utility programs may help pay part of the upfront cost and lower the project's total cost.

EV Fleet Resiliency Assessment Tool

Use the EV Fleet Resiliency Assessment Tool to enter your fleet details and get tailored recommendations on improving fleet resiliency.

Coming soon

Engineering Consultancy

Apply to our EV Advisory Services program to access complimentary Engineering Consultancy Services to validate EV Fleet Resiliency Assessment Tool results and develop a high-level resilient charging design (conceptual site spatial overlay) to support future planning and decision-making. Customers should first complete the EV Fleet Resiliency Assessment Tool before applying.