Increased usage of renewable energy resources is key for energy system evolution to address environmental concerns. Capturing variable renewable power requires the use of energy storage to shift generation and load demand. The integration of plug-in electric vehicles, however, impacts the load demand profile and therefore the capacity of energy storage required to meet renewable utilization targets. This study examines how the intelligence of plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) integration impacts the required capacity of energy storage systems to meet renewable utilization targets for a large-scale energy system, using California as an example for meeting a 50% and 80% renewable portfolio standard (RPS) in 2030 and 2050. For an 80% RPS in 2050, immediate charging of PEVs requires the installation of an aggregate energy storage system with a power capacity of 60% of the installed renewable capacity and an energy capacity of 2.3% of annual renewable generation. With smart charging of PEVs, required power capacity drops to 16% and required energy capacity drops to 0.6%, and with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging, non vehicle energy storage systems are no longer required. Overall, this study highlights the importance of intelligent PEV charging for minimizing the scale of infrastructure required to meet renewable utilization targets. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.