More than half of respondents believe it is important for their utility to be involved in the development of a public charging infrastructure. faster at-home charging, public charging at work and other frequented places, and high-speed public charging stations is less than the current cost of providing those services [13]. 2) A majority (52%) of respondents said they prefer an unrestricted, fixed-price charging plan over plans that offer discounts of up to 16% for elective (but more expensive) or restricted nighttime charging [13]. 3) More than half of respondents believe it is important for their utility to be involved in the development of a public charging infrastructure [13]. Understanding the Value of Transportation Electrification One advantage of the utility participation in EV infrastructure deployment is to bring a long-term approach to the economics of deploying and operating infrastructure with a typical utility focus on safety and reliability. Another benefit to this approach is that properly designed infrastructure programs can also exert downward pressure on utility rates-a benefit that accrues to all utility customers. EPRI has worked to model the value of these programs; three generalized cases are presented here [14] to address the following issues: xx Transportation electrification could represent a net benefit to all utility customers. xx Utilities helping to facilitate the market could amplify these benefits. xx Utility actions could range from basic customer education to facilitating easy, seamless grid connection, to rate-basing infrastructure deployment. Utilities, their regulators, and other stakeholders need this information to examine the high-level benefits of TablE 3. Projected gasoline prices, 2025-2035. Gasoline Price Value Escalation Rate, % 2016 2025 2030 2035 Low gas price (US$/gal) 2.03 1.9 2.40 2.45 2.52 Medium gas price (US$/gal) 2.03 3.5 2.77 3.29 3.90 High gas price (US$/gal) 2.03 9.4 4.56 5.08 5.64 100 100 90 90 80 80 61% 70 70 (%) 50 Customer-Side Infrastructure Costs Incremental Electricity GHG Costs 60 60 (%) Net RIM Benefit* 61% EV Electricity Costs 50 Grid Capacity Costs 40 40 T&D Costs 30 30 Utility EV Monthly Bills (Annualized) 20 20 10 10 0 *Data Labels Show Net RIM Benefit 0 Benefits Costs (a) Benefits Costs (b) Figure 5. The results of the RIM test for low and high future gasoline prices: (a) low-gasoline prices and (b) high-gasoline prices. IEEE Electrific ation Magazine / march 2 0 1 7 65