NEW DELHI – Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company Ltd (BESCOM) is the State Nodal Agency for setting up EV charging infrastructure in Karnataka. BESCOM distributes electricity to over 12 million customers in Bengaluru City and adjacent districts of Kolar, Tumakur, Ramanagara, Chikkaballapur, Chitradurga and Davanagere covering an area of 41,092 sq km. BESCOM, the state-owned electricity distribution company has always been a front runner in adoption of new technologies. Karnataka Government issued an Electric Vehicles and Energy Storage Policy in 2017 with the objective of making Bengaluru the EV capital of India. Accordingly, BESCOM has already installed 136 charging stations at 74 locations (32 DC fast-chargers at 15 locations and 104 AC chargers at 74 locations) in Bengaluru City and pursuing the plan to install 1000 charging stations on fast track. With the experience of running 136 charging stations, BESCOM realized the need for assessing the capacity of the distribution grid to accommodate the EV load. In many locations, the grid may require upgrade for accommodating the EV load. This upgrade requires detailed modelling studies.
BESCOM availed the professional services of India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF) to undertake detailed modelling studies to prepare the plan for the deployment of EV charging infrastructure and associated grid upgrades. This study was undertaken by ISGF with support from Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF). This study report on EV Charging Infrastructure Planning and Rollout for Bengaluru City was released on 18th September 2021 in Bengaluru by Honorable Minister for Energy, Government of Karnataka, Mr V Sunill Kumar at the Karnataka Electric Mobility Workshop organized by BESCOM and ISGF. The workshop was attended by over 400 participants (in-person and online) including EV and Charging Station manufacturers, EV fleet operators, residential welfare association office bearers and other stakeholders. The workshop was addressed by Mr G Kumar Naik, Additional Chief Secretary, Energy, GoK; Mr Rajendra Cholan, MD, BESCOM; Mr Reji Kumar Pillai, President, ISGF; Mr Chetan Maini, Co-founder, Sun Mobility; Mr Mahesh Babu, CEO, Switch Mobility India and COO, Switch Mobility Global; Mr Girish Ghatikar from Electric Power Research Institute, USA; Mr Shashi Verma, Director and Chief Technology Officer at Transport for London; and other domain experts.
Modelling studies were conducted on twelve 11 kV feeders on which EV charging stations are already connected. Detailed studies were conducted for different scenarios of EV load and solar rooftop PV penetration on these feeders in the years 2020, 2022 and 2025. Based on the results of the study recommendations for distribution grid upgradations to accommodate EV loads in different scenarios have been prepared. Also, identification of ideal locations in Bengaluru City for establishing EV Charging Stations is included in the report. Evaluation of the business models for EV charging business as well as recommendations on the software platforms for managing the EV charging stations are part of this report.
