Intelligent Vehicle Charging Benefits Assessment Using EV Project Data

Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) offer the near-term opportunity to displace gasoline purchased at the pump with electricity purchased from the grid and generated from diverse domestic resources. Dozens of studies have been conducted over the past decade exploring the emissions benefits, grid impacts, and potential role that PEVs could play as distributed energy sources. These studies are largely based on various scenarios when PEVs become a sizable part of the nation’s light-duty vehicle fleet. In addition, many of these studies highlight the importance of an infrastructure that allows communication and control between the PEV, electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) and the emerging smart grid. Here, this is referred to as an intelligent vehicle charging infrastructure (IVCI). This report estimates the lost opportunities of PEV charging applying intelligent charging strategies and using the most recent and extensive charging behavior data available in the U.S. The EV Project funded through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) represents the largest PEV and EVSE deployment in the nation’s history, which includes an extensive data collection effort undertaken by Idaho National Laboratory. With data on over 2.3 million charging events, much is being learned about PEV charging behaviors and the impacts on regional grids. The PEV infrastructure being currently deployed does not include control capabilities across the infrastructure other than vehicle-based timers. This study focuses on a high-level assessment of the economic benefits of an IVCI using EV Project data. The following grid impacts and lost economic benefits are analyzed in this study, assuming that an IVCI is available: (1) the potential of increased regional peak demand for power in regions without time-of-use (TOU) rates; (2) reduced costs of PEV charging from shifting timing to off-peak periods; (3) significant ramping of PEV charging load when off-peak TOU rates take effect, leading to potential distribution constraints; and (4) potential economic benefits from participating in wholesale markets for reserve capacity.

• Record URL:
  http://www.electricdrive.org/index.php?ht=a/GetDocumentAction/id/40890
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  902 Battelle Boulevard
  P.O. Box 999
  Richland, WA  United States  99352

  Department of Energy

  1000 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20585
• Authors:
  • Letendre, S
  • Gowri, K
  • Kintner-Meyer, M
  • Pratt, R
• Publication Date: 2013-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 40p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Economic benefits; Electric vehicle charging; Off peak periods; Peak periods; Plug-in hybrid vehicles; Wholesale trade
• Candidate Terms: Smart grid
• Uncontrolled Terms: Reserve capacity
• Subject Areas: Economics; Energy; Highways; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01525273
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: PNNL-23031
• Contract Numbers: DE-AC05-76RL01830
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 24 2014 5:23PM