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Alectra SmartCharge: Benefits from the Macro to Micro Scale
As electric vehicle (EV) adoption accelerates, utilities face increasing pressure to manage electrification impacts on local distribution systems while maintaining affordability, reliability, and customer satisfaction. This session explores Alectra Utilities’ SmartCharge pilot, an initiative supported by the Ontario Energy Board’s Innovation Sandbox, and how a customer-centric approach to EV charging can deliver benefits from the grid level down to the individual homeowner.
Initially designed as a residential demand response (DR) solution, SmartCharge tested the thesis that broad customer participation, connected devices, and integration with utility planning data could help mitigate the impacts of electrification on the electricity system while improving the customer experience. Through an integrated platform, participants receive personalized charging insights, recommendations on best-fit electricity rate structures, managed charging incentives, and access to a customer-facing marketplace offering Level 2 charger purchase and lease options.
The session will demonstrate how SmartCharge combines streamlined charger installation, mobile-enabled charging management, and real-time energy insights with customer education tools that help participants evaluate EV costs, charging options, greenhouse gas reductions, and home electrical readiness. Early findings show strong customer response to the program’s holistic, as-a-service model and incentive structure, including participation in demand response events.
A key insight from the pilot was the emergence of a distinct customer journey focused on avoiding costly home electrical service upgrades when adopting EV charging. This revealed an opportunity for utilities to integrate home energy management strategies that optimize charging and minimize infrastructure upgrades while supporting broader electrification goals.
Attendees will gain practical insights into implementation lessons, customer engagement strategies, and emerging approaches for scalable, customer-centric EV programs. The session will also explore how residential distributed energy resources and managed charging can strengthen grid flexibility, improve system planning, delay costly infrastructure investments, and support long-term decarbonization objectives
