SEPA provides utilities with transportation electrification toolkit

A new publication from the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) will give utilities and regulators the tools they need to transition to transportation electrification, the organization said.

In collaboration with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the toolkit will leverage perspectives and best practices of utilities and community-based organizations to help with an equitable transition. The toolkit includes the necessary tools to understand how activities may create inequities, industry best practices, and guidance for using those best practices across program types. Highlighted, the organizations said, were the efforts transportation electrification requires across entire utilities and building trust throughout the community.

“SEPA developed this toolkit to support and strengthen efforts to ensure equity as we progress transportation electrification nationwide, ensuring no customer or community gets left behind in the clean energy transition,” SEPA President and CEO Sheri Givens said. “I am incredibly proud of the year-long effort that the SEPA and EPRI team engaged on with over 150 community members across 10 states, along with the staff of eight utilities, to ascertain best practices and guidance to ensure accessibility and affordability going forward. That said, we recognize much work remains. SEPA will continue to lead by example by incorporating equity into our projects and building trust within our members’ communities.”

SEPA said utilities must engage with communities, meet customers where they are, and remove barriers to participation in transportation electrification. The organization noted that developing partnerships with community organizations while leveraging existing community events and understanding the needs of communities is a start to that engagement.

“The first step to addressing and overcoming inequity is to benchmark where we are today and measure the improvements we make along the way,” said Garrett Fitzgerald, senior director of electrification at SEPA. “This benchmarking toolkit offers a good starting point for utilities and regulators to intentionally address and integrate equity into transportation electrification programs.