Utilizing Highway Rest Areas for Electric Vehicle Charging: Economics and Impacts of Renewable Energy Penetration in California

California policy is incentivizing rapid adoption of zero emission electric vehicles for light duty and freight applications. In this project, we explored how locating charging facilities at California’s highway rest stops, might impact electricity demand, grid operation, and integration of renewables like solar and wind into California’s energy mix.   Assuming a growing population of electric vehicles to meet state goals, we estimated state-wide growth of electricity demand, and identified the most attractive rest stop locations for siting chargers. Using a California-specific electricity dispatch model developed at ITS, we estimated how charging vehicles at these stations would impact renewable energy curtailment in California. We estimated the impacts of charging infrastructures on California’s electricity system and how they can be utilized to decrease the duck curve effect resulting from a large amount of solar energy penetration by 2050.

加利福尼亚州的政策正在激励快速推广零排放电动车辆，应用于轻型和中型货运领域。在本项目中，我们探讨了将充电设施布局在加州高速公路休息区可能对电力需求、电网运行以及可再生能源（如太阳能和风能）融入加州能源结构的影响。鉴于电动汽车数量预期将不断增长以满足州政府设定的目标，我们估算全州电力需求的增长情况，并确定了最适宜建设充电站的高速公路休息区位置。利用ITS（交通系统）开发的加州特定电力调度模型，我们估算了在这些站点充电的车辆如何影响加州可再生能源的削减。我们评估了充电基础设施对加州电力系统的影响，以及如何利用这些影响以减少到2050年大量太阳能渗透导致的‘鸭子曲线’效应。