IMPACT OF PLUG-IN HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING CHOICES IN 2030

摘要

This study systematically examined the impacts of multiple plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV)recharging scenarios in the western United States (in particular, Western Electricity Coordinating Council,WECC service area) in 2030. The goal of the study is twofold: to examine the impact of PHEV marketpenetration and charging scenarios on the electric utilities and transmission grid and to estimate thepotential reductions in petroleum use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to PHEV miles traveledmainly on grid electricity. We examined three charging scenarios: (1) PHEVs start recharging upon arrivalat home at the end of their last daily trip, (2) PHEVs complete the recharging of their batteries just beforethe start of the first daily trip, and (3) PHEVs may have additional charging opportunity during daytime.The three charging scenarios produce distinct hourly electric load profiles, with the opportunity chargingscenario resulting in a significant increase in load during the daytime. However, when we ran utilitydispatch simulations for these charging scenarios in the WECC area, they all exhibited similar marginalgeneration mixes (dominated by the natural gas combined cycle technology) to satisfy the PHEV load,and GHG emissions were within 2% of each other. A well-to-wheel (WTW) analysis revealed that themarginal generation mixes produce 45% and 17% less GHG emissions by PHEVs relative to those ofconventional gasoline internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) and gasoline hybrid electric vehicles(HEVs), respectively.