Tritium's Jeff Wolfe to Outline the Future of The Grid at PlugVolt July 2019 Battery Seminar

TORRANCE, Calif., June 24, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Tritium, a world leader in electric vehicle (EV) DC fast charging technology, today announced that its Americas President, Jeff Wolfe, will keynote the Grid session of the PlugVolt July 2019 Battery Seminar.

The PlugVolt July 2019 Battery Seminar takes place in Plymouth, Michigan, July 16-18. Featuring speakers from America's largest automotive manufacturers, utilities and EV technology providers, it aims to foster joint development efforts to advance energy storage solutions.

Keynote Details
Who: Jeff Wolfe, President, Americas, Tritium
What: "High Speed EV Charging – Working with the Grid to Accelerate Integration and Enable Energy Freedom"
When: Thursday, July 18, 8:30AM EDT
Where: The Inn at St. John's, 44045 Five Mile Road, Plymouth, MI 48170

Tritium last year unveiled the world's most powerful EV charger – the Veefil-PK 350kW DC high power charger, which is scalable to 475kW. The focus of Mr. Wolfe's keynote, titled "High Speed EV Charging – Working with the Grid to Accelerate Integration and Enable Energy Freedom," will outline how quickly these and other chargers are being rolled out across the globe, and why utilities and EV charger manufacturers need to work together to enhance value and grid capabilities.

"The grid as we know it wasn't architected to meet this rapid increase in demand placed on it by EV charging, particularly when we start to consider the rise of high-power chargers capable of 475kW," said Wolfe. "As installations continue, we risk straining both the physical infrastructure as well as the engineering capabilities and resources of the utilities.

"We must find a better way to interconnect our grids with the chargers."

Mr. Wolfe believes that the rise of EVs offers utilities a rare opportunity to increase their customer base as drivers reduce their reliance on gasoline, but says they must collaborate with EV charger manufacturers to minimize the impact on the grid now. In his keynote, Mr. Wolfe outlines a solution detailing how emerging utility grid interface architectures and technologies, including bi-directional or Vehicle-to-Grid charging, will minimize grid impact while increasing utility revenues and customer loyalty.

"Bi-directional charging will allow utilities to optimize the total load on the grid and load profile from EV charging and other services," he said. "Using energy stored during selected periods, utilities will be able to lower the impact on the grid through the incentivization of charging behavior.

"For us to get to this point, however, we need to make the experience frictionless for the drivers and that will involve discussions between charger makers, grid operators and even technologists."

Mr. Wolfe joined Tritium earlier this year, bringing with him more than 30 years' experience in the energy and cleantech industries. His special interest in climate-positive energy has seen him play a pivotal role in the solar sector through groSolar, a nationwide solar company which Mr. Wolfe founded in 1998. Throughout his career, Mr. Wolfe has also held senior leadership roles at Just Energy and Shell.

"We're honored to have Jeff Wolfe join us to provide an insight into the development of not just chargers, but also of technologies necessary to ease the integration of these chargers into our daily lives," said JC Soman, Director of Marketing at PlugVolt. "Jeff is a greentech veteran whose insights into the grid aren't formed solely from his experience with EVs and Tritium, but from an illustrious career spent looking into clean energy and how to bring it to the mainstream."

Tritium recently hit a number of major milestones in the US. In February 2017, the company opened its first US office – which doubles as a research and development (R&D) center – in Torrance, California, and has since grown to a team of 25 across the nation and more than 300 globally.

Last year, the company announced it was receiving a portion of $3.2 million in federal funding awarded to Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) by the Department of Energy, to develop an extreme fast charging system that can connect directly to the distribution grid. EPRI allocated about $400,000 for Tritium to develop a custom version of its Veefil-PK high-powered charging head, along with providing input for system design and testing.

About Tritium
Tritium is a technology company that designs and manufactures the world's most advanced DC charging equipment for electric vehicles (EV). With offices in Torrance, California, as well as Australia and The Netherlands, Tritium has emerged as a leading global DC fast charger (DCFC) and high-power charger (HPC) supplier with more than 3,000 installations in over 30 countries, including across the United States. The company is the largest supplier of 350kW DC HPCs to the world's largest ultra-fast network, The IONITY network in Europe, and its award-winning Veefil-RT 50kW DCFC sports the world's smallest footprint and been installed for many private and public networks across the globe. Each product supports light to heavy duty fleets, bus fleets and depots, retail, forecourts and utility-backed projects.

About PlugVolt
PlugVolt is involved in the business of promoting and fostering joint development efforts in advancing battery and alternative energy storage technologies for medical, military, consumer, industrial, transportation, grid and stationary markets. PlugVolt offers several key services including educational events, custom on-site trainings, business consultation, strategic match-making, and providing informational services to industry members. For additional information visit http://www.plugvolt.com
All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Tritium