Shifting Future Electric Vehicle Trips to e-Bikes Could Help Reduce Electricity Demand at Critical Times in California

California aims to replace gasoline and diesel light-duty vehicles (LDVs) with zero-emission LDVs, many of which will be plug-in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and achieve 100% zero-carbon electricity by 2045. Large-scale plug-in BEV deployment will substantially increase electricity demand, particularly during peak hours (4:00pm to 9:00pm) when renewable energy is in short supply. Popular strategies for charging BEVs with electricity produced from renewable energy include smart charging and creating more energy storage that soaks up renewable energy during the day and dispenses it later when needed. These strategies, however, may not be enough. Consumer acceptance limits smart charging, and increased energy storage capacity is expensive. Another potential strategy involves lowering the overall demand for electricity by shifting BEV trips to electric-powered bicycles (e-bikes). While e-bikes cannot entirely replace BEV trips, they are ideal for short trips (five miles or less). Currently, 64% of US vehicle trips fall into the short trip category

Life Cycle Assessment of Environmental and Economic Impacts of Deploying Alternative Urban Bus Powertrain Technologies in the South Coast Air Basin [Research Brief]

To address issues of air quality and greenhouse gas emissions in the South Coast Air Basin, local transit agencies are considering shifting their urban buses to battery electric buses (BEBs) and hydrogen fuel cell electric buses (FCEBs). However, each of these options vary in their effectiveness in reducing emissions over their life cycle, associated life cycle costs and environmental footprint, and ability to meet operational needs

Deliverable Report: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Additional Energy Storage Procurement

The present project aims to provide information on the preferred configuration of energy storage technologies for supporting a decarbonized California electricity system. Energy storage technologies have been identified as critical for enabling compliance with California’s electricity decarbonization goals. While lithium-ion batteries are currently the leading option for meeting energy storage needs, particularly in the near term, a diverse array of other commercial or near-commercial energy storage technologies are available that have characteristics better suited to meet the particular needs of a future electricity system.In this context, the present project aims to determine which energy storage technologies are best suited to serve different functions required to operate a future, decarbonized electricity system in California and elucidate how energy storage technology characteristics map to their suitability for different applications. This will be accomplished by meeting the following objectives:  Determine the net costs associated with deploying different energy storage technology portfolios to facilitate an electricity system that complies with SB 100 goals and IRP targets.  Compare the costs and benefits associated with the use of different energy storage technology portfolios in terms of expenditures and system-wide electricity system operations.  Determine the energy storage characteristics that are better suited for providing different grid services at a minimal net cost

Advising and Optimizing the Deployment of Sustainability-Oriented Technologies in the Integrated Electricity, Light-Duty Transportation, and Water Supply System

The convergence of increasing populations, decreasing primary resource availability, and uncertain climates have drawn attention to the challenge of shifting the operations of key resource sectors towards a sustainable paradigm. This is prevalent in California, which has set sustainability-oriented policies such as the Renewable Portfolio Standards and Zero-Emission Vehicle mandates. To meet these goals, many options have been identified to potentially carry out these shifts. The electricity sector is focusing on accommodating renewable power generation, the transportation sector on alternative fuel drivetrains and infrastructure, and the water supply sector on conservation, reuse, and unconventional supplies. Historical performance evaluations of these options, however, have not adequately taken into account the impacts on and constraints of co-dependent infrastructures that must accommodate them and their interactions with other simultaneously deployed options. These aspects are critical for optimally choosing options to meet sustainability goals, since the combined system of all resource sectors must satisfy them. Certain operations should not be made sustainable at the expense of rendering others as unsustainable, and certain resource sectors should not meet their individual goals in a way that hinders the ability of the entire system to do so. Therefore, this work develops and utilizes an integrated platform of the electricity, transportation, and water supply sectors to characterize the performance of emerging technology and management options while taking into account their impacts on co-dependent infrastructures and identify synergistic or detrimental interactions between the deployment of different options. This is carried out by first evaluating the performance of each option in the context of individual resource sectors to determine infrastructure impacts, then again in the context of paired resource sectors (electricity-transportation, electricity-water), and finally in the context of the combined tri-sector system. This allows a more robust basis for composing preferred option portfolios to meet sustainability goals and gives a direction for coordinating the paradigm shifts of different resource sectors. Overall, it is determined that taking into account infrastructure constraints and potential operational interactions can significantly change the evaluation of the preferred role that different technologies should fulfill in contributing towards satisfying sustainability goals in the holistic context

Cost-Benefit Analysis of Additional Energy Storage Procurement

California has ambitious goals for reducing and eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from the State’s electricity system as a cornerstone of efforts to decarbonize the State’s economy more broadly. Electricity decarbonization efforts are codified by Senate Bill (SB) 100 which seeks to have 100% of retail sales of electricity by the year 2045 provided by eligible zero-carbon resources with an interim target of 60% of retail sales of electricity provided by eligible renewable resources by the year 2030. This policy contributes to a broader goal of achieving economy-wide carbon neutrality in the State by 2045, codified by Executive Order B-55-18.Planning studies were undertaken to determine how California should proceed in terms of electricity generation and storage resource rollout to meet these goals, such as the Senate Bill 100 Joint Agency Report [1], which highlights the need for rapid renewable resource and energy storage buildout. Energy storage is typically selected as utility-scale lithium-ion batteries for short-duration storage and pumped hydropower energy storage for long-duration energy storage functions, primarily due to their relatively low cost for the former and technological maturity for the latter. Since the capacity expansion models used for such planning studies focus on minimizing cost, the recommended course from these studies focuses on lithium-ion and pumped hydropower energy storage connected as utility energy storage.In practice, however, energy storage deployment will not be dictated by a central plan. Energy storage is being deployed to serve different priorities. Behind-the-meter energy storage may be deployed by individual residential, commercial, and industrial customers to serve their specific needs, provide electricity savings, and enable higher uptake of local renewable resources. Energy storage may also be installed at wind or solar farms to enable these to act as more dispatchable resources for the electric grid and enable them to provide electricity to the grid when they would otherwise not be generating. Additionally, other energy storage technologies such as flow batteries and hydrogen energy storage are emerging as potential alternatives to lithium-ion batteries and pumped hydropower, each with its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of technical, economic, and practical (i.e. safety, recyclability, etc...) characteristics.Energy storage is a critical enabler of plans for complying with Senate Bill 100 and broader economy-wide decarbonization goals. Therefore, it is critical to understand the effect of alternative configurations for energy storage deployment on the broader electricity system’s ability to rely on zero-carbon electricity for meeting load, how well it can use available renewable electricity generation, and the system-wide cost of electricity.Therefore, the goal of this project is to provide information on the preferred configuration of energy storage technologies for supporting a decarbonized California electric grid by investigating alternative configurations for the buildout of energy storage to meet California’s electricity decarbonization goals and comparing them to the configuration suggested by Senate Bill 100 planning studies

Life Cycle Assessment of Environmental and Economic Impacts of Deploying Alternative Urban Bus Powertrain Technologies in the South Coast Air Basin

To aid in addressing issues of air quality and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the South Coast Air Basin, local transit agencies are considering a shift to battery electric buses (BEBs) and hydrogen fuel cell electric buses (FCEBs). Each of these options vary in their overall effectiveness in reducing different emission types over their life cycle, associated life cycle costs, ability to meet operational needs of transit agencies, and life cycle environmental footprint. This project carried out a life cycle-based analysis and comparison of the GHG emissions, criteria pollutant emissions, and other environmental externalities associated with BEBs and FCEBs, taking into account their ability to meet operational constraints of the Orange County Transportation Authority. From an environmental footprint perspective, this study found the following. First, both FCEBs and long-range BEBs have comparable impacts for global warming potential and particulate matter formation but when the FCEBs were fueled using renewable hydrogen. Second, using electricity from the current California grid mix to drive electrolysis to produce hydrogen for FCEBs produced only marginal benefits compared to current natural-gas fueled vehicles due to the low supply chain efficiency of this pathway. Third, the mining of precious metals is a major contributor to environmental footprint categories for both BEBs and FCEBs. Fourth, both FCEVs and long-range BEBs provide significant reductions in environmental footprint compared to conventional diesel and natural gas buses. From a cost perspective, this study found the following. First, with current-day cost inputs, FCEBs and BEBs have comparable total cost of ownership, but both have slightly higher costs than diesel and natural gas buses. Second, FCEBs have an equivalent total cost of ownership to BEBs when the electricity rate for charging is $0.24/kWh. Higher values render FCEBs as the cheaper option and lower values render BEBs as the cheaper option. Second, the total cost of ownership of these technologies is highly sensitive to electricity costs, and the rapid evolution of the electricity system has strong implications for the economic comparison between BEBs and FCEBs. Overall, this study finds that while both FCEBs and BEBs provide life-cycle environmental benefits, further cost reductions in electricity rates and initial purchase costs are needed to achieve total cost of ownership parity with conventional bus powertrains. With the rapid evolution of the electricity system and falling costs for renewable electricity resources, these cost reductions may occur in the near future

Evaluating options for balancing the water-electricity nexus in California: Part 2--greenhouse gas and renewable energy utilization impacts.

A study was conducted to compare the technical potential and effectiveness of different water supply options for securing water availability in a large-scale, interconnected water supply system under historical and climate-change augmented inflow and demand conditions. Part 2 of the study focused on determining the greenhouse gas and renewable energy utilization impacts of different pathways to stabilize major surface reservoir levels. Using a detailed electric grid model and taking into account impacts on the operation of the water supply infrastructure, the greenhouse gas emissions and effect on overall grid renewable penetration level was calculated for each water supply option portfolio that successfully secured water availability from Part 1. The effects on the energy signature of water supply infrastructure were found to be just as important as that of the fundamental processes for each option. Under historical (baseline) conditions, many option portfolios were capable of securing surface reservoir levels with a net neutral or negative effect on emissions and a benefit for renewable energy utilization. Under climate change augmented conditions, however, careful selection of the water supply option portfolio was required to prevent imposing major emissions increases for the system. Overall, this analysis provided quantitative insight into the tradeoffs associated with choosing different pathways for securing California's water supply

Evaluating options for balancing the water-electricity nexus in California: Part 2--greenhouse gas and renewable energy utilization impacts.

A study was conducted to compare the technical potential and effectiveness of different water supply options for securing water availability in a large-scale, interconnected water supply system under historical and climate-change augmented inflow and demand conditions. Part 2 of the study focused on determining the greenhouse gas and renewable energy utilization impacts of different pathways to stabilize major surface reservoir levels. Using a detailed electric grid model and taking into account impacts on the operation of the water supply infrastructure, the greenhouse gas emissions and effect on overall grid renewable penetration level was calculated for each water supply option portfolio that successfully secured water availability from Part 1. The effects on the energy signature of water supply infrastructure were found to be just as important as that of the fundamental processes for each option. Under historical (baseline) conditions, many option portfolios were capable of securing surface reservoir levels with a net neutral or negative effect on emissions and a benefit for renewable energy utilization. Under climate change augmented conditions, however, careful selection of the water supply option portfolio was required to prevent imposing major emissions increases for the system. Overall, this analysis provided quantitative insight into the tradeoffs associated with choosing different pathways for securing California's water supply