ELECTRIC VEHICLES AS A NEW POWER SOURCE FOR ELECTRIC UTILITIES

Electric-drive vehicles, whether fueled by batteries or by liquid or g aseous fuels generating electricity on-board, will have value to elect ric utilities as power resources. The power capacity of the current in ternal combustion passenger vehicle fleet is enormous and under-utiliz ed. In the United States, for example, the vehicle fleet has over 10 t imes the mechanical power of all current U.S. electrical generating pl ants and is idle over 95% of the day. Electric utilities could use bat tery vehicles as storage, or fuel cell and hybrid vehicles as generati on. This paper analyzes vehicle battery storage in greatest detail, co mparing three electric vehicle configurations over a range of driving requirements and electric utility demand conditions. Even when making unfavorable assumptions about the cost and lifetime of batteries, over a wide range of conditions the value to the utility of tapping vehicl e electrical storage exceeds the cost of the two-way hook-up and reduc ed vehicle battery life. For example, even a currently-available elect ric vehicle, in a utility with medium value of peak power, could provi de power at a net present cost to the vehicle owner of $955 and net pr esent value to the utility of $2370. As an incentive to the vehicle ow ner, the utility might offer a vehicle purchase subsidy, lower electri c rates, or purchase and maintenance of successive vehicle batteries. For a utility tapping vehicle power, the increased storage would provi de system benefits such as reliability and lower costs, and would late r facilitate large-scale integration of intermittent-renewable energy resources. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.