Rocky Mountain Institute, RMI India, and NITI Aayog are collaborating with electricity distribution companies (discoms) in Haryana, a state in North India, through the Lighthouse Discom Programme to identify, evaluate, plan, and implement cost-effective examples of clean energy technologies. The program aims to create replicable pathways toward increased profitability and readiness for higher penetrations of renewable generation and electric mobility. The Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Readiness Guide provides practical guidance to discoms interested in capturing the maximum benefits of electric mobility.

Electric vehicles (EVs) represent a growing opportunity for discoms to capture new sources of demand flexibility while increasing revenue from a customer class that will grow significantly over the next decade. Converting India’s existing vehicle fleet to electric will add terawatt-hours of new demand to the grid and requires thoughtful and timely planning to minimize costs and maximize benefits to discoms and customers alike.

Additionally, if managed correctly and planned for proactively, this new large and flexible load (in time and location) will support revenue growth and improve the efficiency of discom operations. However, if new demand is not met proactively, discoms will be challenged by large numbers of interconnect requests and little control of the new load, resulting in a lost demand-side management opportunity and a slowing of demand growth.

Discoms can start planning today for the expected demand growth in the coming years and decades. The first step in planning for an EV future is to build capacity across the key stakeholders to ensure all parties have the fundamental knowledge required to have productive planning discussions. This EV charging guide address actions and considerations specifically relevant to Indian discoms preparing for electric mobility in their territory. The report presents a review of international best practices and recommendations for Indian discoms’ EV readiness. Topics covered include:

• Charging technology and vehicle-specific considerations
• Consumer charging behavior and the implications for discoms
• Best practices in planning for EV charging deployment
• Key considerations for maximizing discom and customer benefits of EV adoption