Emissions and Air Quality Implications of Enabling On-Road Vehicles as Flexible Load Through Widescale Zero Emission Vehicle Deployment in California

Abstract

This study assesses the impacts of on-road light- to heavy-duty zero emission vehicle (ZEV) adoption and charging protocols on greenhouse gas emissions for the years 2030 and 2045 in California, and on air quality for the year 2045. Two scenarios are addressed: (1) a “business-as-usual” (BAU) scenario with modest ZEV adoption, and (2) a “carbon neutral” scenario that achieves carbon neutrality by 2045 with proactive ZEV adoption. Electricity load for fueling ZEVs is projected, including electricity fuel for battery electric vehicles and electrolytic hydrogen for fuel cell electric vehicles. This electric load was input into an electric grid dispatch model and electric grid and air quality analyses were conducted. The results revealed that although medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs) are projected to have lower total electric load associated with fueling, they will require roughly double the electricity for hydrogen production of light-duty vehicles. For the electric grid scenarios examined, ZEV loads increased peak electricity demand by 3% to 6% in 2030 and 22% to 31% in 2045. MHDV time-of-use and smart charging strategies were equally able to shift charging demand to off-peak times. Higher ZEV loads under the carbon neutral scenario increased natural gas use up to 6% in 2030 and energy storage requirements up to 45% in 2045 compared with the BAU scenario. The analyses also found that achieving carbon neutrality through ZEV adoption had the cobenefit of significantly reducing ground-level ozone and PM2.5 concentrations in key regions of California, providing health savings of approximately $28 billion annually in 2045.

Comprehensive Review of California's Innovative Clean Transit Regulation: Phase I Summary Report

“…This is commonly called CCS-1 and is mostly used in North America. CCS-1 accommodates charging at 200-920 V DC and up to 350 kW (450 kW is proposed) [84,85]. The combination coupler uses power-line communication technology to communicate between the vehicle, off-board charger, and smart grid.…”

“…A contract between CARB and the University of California, Irvine (Agreement No. 20MSC006) identifies that with SAE under J3271, the Megawatt Charging System is currently a work in progress and its contents are being coordinated with the CharIN industry consortium [88,89]. The Megawatt Charging System is planned for DC high-powered charging to deliver 1,250 V and 3,000 A for up to 3.75 MW for a single conductive plug [90].…”

“…Many automakers and charging networks have publicly signaled their intention to adopt ISO 15118 as a more robust digital communications protocol between the vehicle and charger. While communication protocols such as ISO 15118 provide general guidelines for signaling between the EV and EVSE, currently there is sufficient design heterogeneity at the commercial product level that interoperability testing is required to ensure performance across multiple platforms and products [85]. The charging software needs to be developed in a way that ensures a good "handshake" between chargers and EVs, even if they are from different OEMs.…”

“…SAE J2601 is currently the only standard for hydrogen fueling that the U.S. auto industry has developed and adopted for fuel cell electric vehicles, but it was harmonized for the European market as ISO 19880-1 and adapted for the Japanese market as JPEC-S 0003 [85,[92][93][94].…”

“…This fueling protocol is suitable for heavy-duty vehicles with a combined hydrogen storage system capacity more than 10 kg, aiming to support all practical capacities of transit buses. The current version of J2601/2 is not a comprehensive fueling protocol but a general overview of operational limits for H35 hydrogen fueling [88].…”