Multi-State Transportation Electrification Impact Study: Preparing the Grid for Light-, Medium-, and Heavy-Duty Electric Vehicles

Technical Report · Fri Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 2024

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/2329422· OSTI ID:2329422

Wood, Eric ^[1]; Borlaug, Brennan ^[1]; McKenna, Killian ^[1]; Keen, Jeremy ^[1]; Liu, Bo ^[1]; Sun, Jiayun ^[1]; Narang, Dave ^[1]; Kiboma, Lawryn ^[1]; Wang, Bin ^[2]; Hong, Wanshi ^[2]; Giraldez, Julieta ^[3]; Moran, Chuck ^[3]; Everett, Margot ^[3]; Horner, Trina ^[3]; Hodges, Troy ^[3]; Crisostomo, Noel ^[4]; Walsh, Patrick ^[4]

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1. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
2. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
3. Kevala, Inc., San Francisco, CA (United States)
4. US Department of Energy (USDOE), Washington, DC (United States)

Recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notices of proposed rulemakings for GHG emissions standards for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty on-road vehicles would accelerate ongoing advancements already happening in the industry because of private investment, consumer demand, state-level policies, and federal incentives. As the EPA finalizes these regulations, questions persist regarding the cost of the requisite charging infrastructure and associated upgrades to the nation's electric grid. With support from the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, and the EPA, a multidisciplinary team conducted a Multi-State Transportation Electrification Impact Study that quantitatively assesses the incremental investment necessary to enable the levels of vehicle electrification expected to be induced by pending EPA regulations and to estimate the potential value of deferred investments in electric distribution infrastructure stemming from proactive vehicle-grid integration planning and deployment. This study finds the simulated incremental capital cost of charging infrastructure (including grid upgrades) to be at least 2.5 times smaller than the lifetime net benefits of vehicle electrification (including fuel savings but excluding the value of avoided emissions). Additionally, the incremental distribution grid upgrade cost of the EPA Action-Unmanaged scenario was found to be approximately 3% of existing utility distribution system investments (on an annual basis). Finally, the potential for managed charging to defer distribution grid upgrades was found to be significant with costs found to decrease from $2.3 billion to an incremental cost of $1 billion across five states in the Action-Managed scenario (relative to the No Action-Unmanaged scenario).

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Joint Office of Energy & Transportation (JOET)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 2329422
• Report Number(s): NREL/TP--5400-88795; MainId:89574; UUID:a131048a-433a-40b2-9f1e-96b6dc97cffe; MainAdminId:72189
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
charging infrastructure
demand flexibility
grid upgrades
plug-in electric vehicle