Principle Investigator: Alan Jenn
Research Team: Tim Lipman, Scott Moura, and Gil Tal
Project Funder: The California Resilient and Innovative Mobility Initiative
As the sales of electric vehicles ramp up to meet both the governor’s explicit goals of 5 million EVs on the road by 2030, as well as to meet California’s decarbonization targets in 2045 and 2050, the necessary charging infrastructure will have substantial impacts on the electricity grid. As both the state and federal government inject money to directly support the deployment of charging infrastructure, there remains questions as to whether this financial support extends to upstream electricity supply infrastructure and more broadly the extent to which this support is needed. This project will investigate how electric vehicles will stress the distribution-level infrastructure at the circuit feeder level to provide a high-resolution understanding of problematic areas throughout the state and provide guidance for both regulatory agencies and utilities on the needs of the localized electricity system.
This project will address key policy questions regarding the necessary electricity infrastructure at the distribution level of power grid. Our analysis will provide a systematic breakdown of the needs of local distribution infrastructure to upgrade their systems to meet future electric vehicle charging loads. Estimates of upgrade costs can then be made to determine whether the policy supporting deployment is adequate and how these costs may be distributed across residents in California. We are also able to investigate whether planned upgrades by utilities will be able to handle the rapidly changing landscape of California’s transportation sector.