Introduction of a New Tariff Structure for Electric Vehicle Owners in Sri Lanka to Promote Demand Response

A majority of residential consumers worldwide have a strong inclination towards transitioning into the use of Electric Vehicles (EVs) due to their competitive advantages over traditional internal combustion engine vehicles such as fuel efficiency, lower emissions, high performance and drop in overall operating costs. The market share of EVs in Sri Lanka to shows a considerable growth rate at present due to the proactive government initiatives to accelerate electric transportation. EV-specific Time-of-Use (TOU) tariff rates are being recently introduced by many utilities to overcome the demand charge issue which is the main barrier impeding the growth of EVs. The existing TOU tariff structure for domestic consumers in Sri Lanka is not so attractive as the price rates are high when compared to the existing block tariff rates. If this TOU tariff structure is provided with an optional meter connection side by side with the block tariff meter connection, there is an opportunity for the consumers to use their highenergy consuming loads such as electric vehicle charging and water pumping at the off-peak times with the TOU meter connection and to use all other loads with the block tariff meter connection. Therefore, a new tariff structure for EV owners in Sri Lanka is proposed in this paper. Customer perspectives on EVs were collected through surveys in order to conduct a financial analysis and determine the viability of the proposed methodology. Further, customer motivation factors, challenges, required policy changes, and recommendations were also identified as a part of this study.