The Effects of Electric Vehicles on Residential Households in the City of Indianapolis
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Energy Policy 49 (2012) 442–455 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Energy Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol The effects of electric vehicles on residential households in the city of Indianapolis Shisheng Huang a, Hameed Safiullah b, Jingjie Xiao b, Bri-Mathias S. Hodge a, Ray Hoffman c, Joan Soller c, Doug Jones c, Dennis Dininger c, Wallace E. Tyner d, Andrew Liu b, Joseph F. Pekny a,n a School of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University, 480 Stadium Mall Dr., West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA b School of Industrial Engineering,Purdue University, 315N. Grant Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA c Indianapolis Power and Light Company, One Monument Circle, Indianapolis, IN 46204, USA d Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, 403W State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA HIGHLIGHTS c Traffic flow modeling is used to accurately characterize EV usage in Indianapolis. c EV usage patterns are simulated to determine household electricity usage patterns. c Economic costs are calculated for the households for electric vehicles. c Possible public charging locations are examined. article info abstract Article history: There is an increasing impetus to transform the U.S transportation sector and transition away from the Received 11 December 2011 uncertainties of oil supply. One of the most viable current solutions is the adoption of electric vehicles Accepted 21 June 2012 (EVs). These vehicles allow for a transportation system that would be flexible in its fuel demands. Available online 2 August 2012 However, utilities may need to address questions such as distribution constraints, electricity tariffs and Keywords: incentives and public charging locations before large scale electric vehicle adoption can be realized. In Electric vehicles this study, the effect of electric vehicles on households in Indianapolis is examined. A four-step traffic Electricity grid flow model is used to characterize the usage characteristics of vehicles in the Indianapolis metropolitan Electricity tariffs area. This data is then used to simulate EV usage patterns which can be used to determine household electricity usage characteristics. These results are differentiated by the zones with which the house- holds are associated. Economic costs are then calculated for the individual households. Finally, possible public charging locations are examined. & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In recent times, there have been tremendous developments in electric vehicle (EV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) Energy security is one of the biggest concerns in the world technologies. EVs and PHEVs use electricity stored in the battery as political landscape. Instability in oil producing nations has further the primary fuel for propulsion. The significant difference between fueled the need to be less reliant on foreign sources of energy. The the two technologies is that PHEVs can utilize a secondary fuel source transportation sector, which imports two thirds of its daily for propulsion when the battery is depleted. Current examples of EVs consumption, is one sector that is heavily dependent on foreign include the Nissan Leaf, Think City and the Tesla Roadster while the sources of energy (EIA, 2010). The ability to move even a part of dominant model for PHEVs is the Chevrolet Volt. When compared to the sector from petroleum products to electricity is of great other alternative fuel vehicle technologies, these vehicles have an interest as it mitigates this risk of crude oil dependence. advantage because of the readily available power grid infrastruc- ture. However, this shifting of the energy requirement of the transportation sector to the power grid might increase the strain n Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 765 494 7901; fax: þ1 765 494 0805. on the grid. Battery charging during peak hours might increase E-mail addresses: [email protected] (S. Huang), the peak load and would require energy from peaking power hsafi[email protected] (H. Safiullah), [email protected] (J. Xiao), plants which is relatively more expensive than energy from non- [email protected] (B.-M. Hodge), [email protected] (R. Hoffman), peaking plants. On the other hand, off-peak charging could [email protected] (J. Soller), [email protected] (D. Jones), [email protected] (D. Dininger), [email protected] (W.E. Tyner), potentially be very beneficial to both the electric utilities and [email protected] (A. Liu), [email protected] (J.F. Pekny). consumers. 0301-4215/$ - see front matter & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.06.039 S. Huang et al. / Energy Policy 49 (2012) 442–455 443 There have been several studies conducted about the impact of diverse area so that it is expected that there could be pockets how electric vehicles would affect the electrical grid. Most studies where EVs would have higher penetration and local effects would have focused on PHEVs. However, since both EVs and PHEVs are be significant. Therefore, the significant contribution of this study technologically very similar, the results of these studies can be is the integration of realistic zonal characteristics with a detailed approximated to EVs. One of the more extensive studies has residential model such that local distribution level effects can be established the upper bound of PHEV adoption using existing U.S anticipated. This would allow for utilities to better anticipate EV electricity generation assets (Kintner-Meyer et al., 2007). This effects on local electricity demand. Since studies have also shown study provided a theoretical upper bound based on optimistic that the attractiveness of PHEVs and EVs are hugely dependent on assumptions that allowed for perfect control of vehicle charging the structure of electricity tariffs (Huang et al., 2011; Lidicker to utilize excess supply capacity. In another analysis, Parks et al. et al., 2010); electricity rate tariffs proposed by the local utility, used four idealized charging patterns combined with a unit Indianapolis Power & Light Company, are also examined to commitment model to determine PHEV penetration effects for determine how attractive EVs are to the local populace. An the Colorado service territory (Parks et al., 2007). PHEVs or EVs examination of the undervaluation of gasoline savings by house- could potentially act as agents that help in integrating higher holds is also examined. To give a comprehensive assessment of penetrations of renewable energy (Hodge et al., 2010, 2011b; Indianapolis, proposed charging stations are analyzed with the Kempton and Tomic, 2005). traffic flow results. Some of the more recent studies of PHEVs have included empirical data for driving patterns to better mimic realistic charging demand on the system. Sioshansi et al. used empirical 2. Methodology driving data from the St. Louis metropolitan area in Missouri to model PHEV charging patterns and coupled it with a unit A multi-paradigm modeling approach has been used to exam- commitment model to determine grid level impacts on the Ohio ine the effects of the introduction of EVs on the electricity power system (Sioshansi et al., 2010). In another study, driving demand sector. The multi-paradigm approach enables different cycledataobtainedthroughGPSdataloggerswasusedto sub-systems to be simulated with the most representative mod- determine the optimal battery size needed for light duty PHEVs eling approaches, levels of data, and model granularity that reflect (Smith et al., 2011). Another option that researchers have the subsystems most accurately. This paper considers two sub- turned to is the extensive data that is available through the systems of the electricity system: an electrified personal trans- National Household Travel Survey (NHTS). Zhang et al. con- portation system and the residential electricity demand sector. verteddatafromthe2009NHTSsurveyintoaMatlabmodel A four step transportation model has been adapted for the and used it to analyze different charging scenarios in the South Indianapolis metropolitan area and used to determine the travel Coast Air Basin of California (Zhang et al., 2011). The effects of characteristics of vehicles in the system. The zonal transportation PHEVs on the Illinois power system with both wind power and data is then fed into an agent-based residential demand model demand response penetration has also been examined using that determines the electricity consumption profile of residential this database (Wang et al., 2011). It has also been used to households. The economic costs and benefits of an electric vehicle estimate detailed power consumption information for these are then calculated for the household. The fact that there will be vehicles (Wu et al., 2011). range anxiety problems attached to electric vehicle usage is The main limitation of the approaches listed above is that recognized in this study. As a comprehensive solution to facilitate usage data for EVs is limited to average or aggregated approx- electric vehicle usage, several preselected locations for EV imations. Average usage characteristics can be very useful for charging stations are evaluated for their vehicle flow influence. analysis that deal with macro level effects such as system wide Fig. 1 shows a simplified flowchart of the aggregated system. benefits or costs, but they can be inadequate for determining local effects for planning purposes. Although empirical data collection 2.1. Transportation characteristics would also provide the same level of granularity, the effort