Meeting the State Petroleum Displacement Plan

We have all been charged with the reduction or displacement of our petroleum usage by 20% before January 1, 2010. Of course, the deadline was extended until June 30, 2012 because of a failure of many State agencies to meet the 20% reduction requirement. The University of North Carolina at Charlotte is committed to being the leader in the State of North Carolina and has achieved this goal by using a combination of strategies; the use of electric vehicles, alternative fuels and alternatively fueled vehicles, and the replacement of specific vehicles.

I) Electric Vehicles

There are four major classifications of EV’s

A) Low Speed Vehicles (LSV’s) or Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEV”s)

These can be licensed for street use on roads with a speed limit of 35 mph or less.

B) Utility Carts (Golf Carts) Only for off-road use.

C) Fully electric cars.

D) Hybrids – Electric / Gas or Electric / Diesel

NEIGHBORHOOD ELECTRIC VEHICLES (LSV’s and NEV’s)

In 2005, UNC – Charlotte ordered and received our first LSV manufactured by Global Electric Motorcars (GEM). We now have 52 GEM’s, 4 Vantage EXVP Vans, and 5 Gator Moto 15 Passenger Tram units.

These vehicles have seat belts, go a maximum of 25 mph and can be licensed for street use. We use these units for all maintenance departments; Housekeeping, Grounds, Electric, Carpentry, and HVAC/Plumbing Shops as well as transporting our administrative staff, Project Managers, and other personnel around the campus. There are a number of manufacturers of LSV’s. UNC-Charlotte is currently involved with the evaluation of LSV’s from several different sources.

UTILITY CARTS

In response to the PDP and in an effort to reduce pollution, UNC-Charlotte has replaced many of its gasoline powered utility carts with electric units. These again, are used by all maintenance shops. By conservative measure, a gasoline powered cart, without any pollution controls, puts out as much pollution as 25 full-sized cars. Taking one of these carts out-of-service is the same thing as taking 25 cars off the road as far as the levels of pollution are concerned and Charlotte is one of the areas within the State of North Carolina that is not in compliance with Federal EPA pollution levels.

We currently use 44 Club Car IQ Plus units, 3 Cushman, 2 Toro, and 2 Columbia EV’s on a daily basis. These are for off road use only and do not qualify for license plates. We have outfitted many of these units with tool boxes and ladder racks for the various trades and craftspeople.

At the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, we have a total of 113 EV’s in service and several more on order. We are using EV’s to replace our old gasoline powered utility carts that used an average of 5.5 to 7.5 gallons of gasoline per unit per month. Therefore, we have reduced our use of petroleum by over 8,000 gallons / year. Even considering the cost of electric power, we are saving thousands of dollars per year on fuel costs.

However, it has been our experience that overall maintenance costs on the EV’s are higher than that of gasoline powered vehicles.

HYBRIDS

Electric/Gasoline and Electric/Diesel hybrid vehicles and plug-in hybrids are in the news almost daily. Increasing the MPG of a vehicle by changing to hybrid technology is one method of meeting the Petroleum Displacement Plan requirements. One exciting development is the use of a hybrid bucket truck – the diesel engine cuts off when using the PTO powered bucket and uses electricity to power the PTO. The diesel engine will start automatically (after a warning alarm) to recharge the batteries if they lose charge while in use. This can be coupled with a hybrid electric drive for the vehicle itself to gain additional fuel savings.

However, if you buy a passenger vehicle with your money, you will still need to transfer the title to the NC Motor Fleet, who will then lease the unit back to you.

ALTERNATIVE FUELS / ALTERNATIVELY FUELED VEHICLES

One if the easiest ways to reduce petroleum use is the use of alternative fuels. E-85 is 85% Ethanol / 15% Gasoline. For every gallon of E-85 used, you are displacing 85% of the petroleum consumption of that vehicle. With E-10, 10% Ethanol / 90% Gasoline, you reduce or displace 10% of your petroleum usage. The same with Bio-Diesel, either B-5, B-10, or B-20; you are displacing the use of petroleum product by that percentage of Bio fuel mixed with the diesel. Gaston County schools currently produce their own Bio-diesel for use in their school buses. For each gallon of Bio-diesel produced, they are reducing their use of petroleum products. Think of the effect on our State if every school bus and diesel powered fleet truck was indeed powered by Bio-diesel? If the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system used B-20 Bio-diesel, they would displace the use of over 3,800 gallons of petroleum per day or 19,000 gallons per week. At UNC-Charlotte, our fuel farm has a 12,000 gallon gasoline tank filled with E-10. We have a 12,000 tank filled with E-85 and a 1,000 gallon diesel tank with Off-Road diesel for our tractors, backhoes, and some lawn equipment.

We currently have 25 E-85 Flex Fueled vehicles in service and three more on order. This includes Motor Fleet cars, full-sized pick-up trucks, mid-sized pick-up trucks and mini-vans, and six mini-trucks and micro- vans.

REPLACING SPECIFIC VEHICLES / RIGHT-SIZING VEHICLES

In looking at the reduction of petroleum usage, it is important to consider the use or application of each vehicle, the annual mileage of each vehicle, and the fuel used by each vehicle. Does every tradesman need a full-sized pick-up truck? Do all shops need only utility carts? The answer, of course, is “no” to each question. You must carefully look at the application for each vehicle. Someone making town-runs to pickup supplies probably needs a pick-up truck. Someone going from location to location on campus to check chillers and boilers needs only a way to get from point A to point B and an electric utility cart would meet that need.

At UNC-Charlotte, we looked at the vehicles that were driven the most miles and used the most fuel. We have and are in the process of replacing these units with smaller, more fuel efficient, “right-sized” vehicles, LSV’s, and utility carts. We are trying to purchase only LSV’s due to Utility Vehicles being so slow and a possible hindrance to traffic flow.

We are also replacing full-sized, high annual mileage, gasoline powered pick-up trucks with flex fueled full-sized pick-up trucks.

At the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, we are proving that the goal of a 20% reduction or displacement of petroleum products is achievable by the use of electric vehicles, alternative fuels and alternatively fueled vehicles, and the replacement of specific vehicles.