Anderson Team Wins Energy Case Competition

The Energy Management Group at the UCLA Anderson School of Management hosted the 4th annual Challenges in Energy Case Competition. The competition was held Jan. 30 2015. The event stands among the top energy case competitions among B-schools in the country. This year, eight teams participated from six different schools. The competition focused on charging solutions for electric vehicles.

For the competition, students were assigned to create a business model for electric vehicle charging at commercial locations that would provide positive value proposition for the commercial customer, the vehicle driver and the local electric utility. The competition allowed students from the competing schools to network with each other as well as the judges who represented the industry’s top companies including SoCal Edison, SolarCity and NRG eVgo.

Edward Kjaer, director of transportation electrification at Southern California Edison, delivered the lunchtime keynote address and spoke to the audience about the future of vehicle electrification.

The UCLA Anderson team, named The Energizer Bunnies, consisting of Dan Freeman (FEMBA ’15), Dan Abbott (’16), David Penskar (’16) and Vishal Saheta (FEMBA ’17), took first place and the $2,500 prize.

The UCLA team’s proposal involved deploying networks of chargers at rental car agencies and large hotel chains and managing the vehicle charging to occur during off-peak hours. This proposal would enable rental agencies and hotels to jointly attract new customers with an electric vehicle offering. Consumers would also get the opportunity to try an electric vehicle while traveling and the charging would occur at times most beneficial to the electric utility.

regions: Los Angeles

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