By Dan Bowermaster, Marcus Alexander, and Mark Duvall The Need for charging Evaluating utility infrastructures for electric vehicles while providing customer support. N 2011, AT THE BEGINNING OF THE current electric vehicle (EV) market in the United States, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) published a report [1] detailing certain aspects of the emergence of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), including the deployment of charging infrastructure, future impacts on the grid, and potential roles for electric utilities in supporting transportation electrification. Characteristics of this early market included a presumed reliance on home recharging and relatively low charging Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MELE.2016.2644559 Date of publication: 7 March 2017 2325-5987/17©2017IEEE IEEE Electrific ation Magazine / march 2 0 1 7 ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/PETOVARGA I 59http://www.ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/PETOVARGA