Episodic air quality impacts of plug-in electric vehicles

Ghazal Razeghi,Marc Carreras-Sospedra,Tim Brown,Jack Brouwer,Donald Dabdub,Scott Samuelsen

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2016.04.031

Abstract

In this paper, the Spatially and Temporally Resolved Energy and Environment Tool (STREET) is used in conjunction with University of California Irvine – California Institute of Technology (UCI-CIT) atmospheric chemistry and transport model to assess the impact of deploying plug-in electric vehicles and integrating wind energy into the electricity grid on urban air quality. STREET is used to generate emissions profiles associated with transportation and power generation sectors for different future cases. These profiles are then used as inputs to UCI-CIT to assess the impact of each case on urban air quality.The results show an overall improvement in 8-h averaged ozone and 24-h averaged particulate matter concentrations in the South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB) with localized increases in some cases. The most significant reductions occur northeast of the region where baseline concentrations are highest (up to 6 ppb decrease in 8-h-averaged ozone and 6 μg/m3 decrease in 24-h-averaged PM2.5). The results also indicate that, without integration of wind energy into the electricity grid, the temporal vehicle charging profile has very little to no effect on urban air quality. With the addition of wind energy to the grid mix, improvement in air quality is observed while charging at off-peak hours compared to the business as usual scenario.

Highlights

Environmental concerns such as air quality and global climate change, along with political concerns, have given rise to elevated interests in alternative transportation
Jansen et al (Jansen et al, 2010). developed a more sophisticated temporal dispatch strategy which used historical data and dispatch order of various resources to determine the electricity generated from each resource at each hour. These results showed that, the addition of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) to the lightduty fleet might result in an increase in the intensity of emissions from electricity generating sector at specific hours, the overall impact is favorable
It is important to study a scenario resulting in a possible air quality episode to demonstrate the attainment for the area (i.e. whether the air quality goals set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) are met (Environmental Protection Agency)); or, in the case of nonattainment, assess strategies to avoid such episodes

Summary

Introduction

Environmental concerns such as air quality and global climate change, along with political concerns, have given rise to elevated interests in alternative transportation. Studies that have investigated the impacts of deploying PEVs (Electric Power Research Institute, 2001, 2007; Jansen et al, 2010; Kintner-Meyer et al, 2007; Razeghi et al, 2011, 2014; Samaras and Meisterling, 2008; Sioshansi and Denholm, 2009a, 2009b; Sioshansi and Miller, 2011; Stephan and Sullivan, 2008; Valentine et al, 2011) suggest that PEVs, when considering both the emissions from the vehicles and the electricity required to charge the vehicles have a net emission advantage over conventional vehicles (Jansen et al, 2010; Razeghi et al, 2011; Samaras and Meisterling, 2008; Sioshansi and Denholm, 2009a, 2009b; Sioshansi and Miller, 2011; Stephan and Sullivan, 2008; Valentine et al, 2011). These results showed that, the addition of PHEVs to the lightduty fleet might result in an increase in the intensity of emissions (lbMWhÀ1) from electricity generating sector at specific hours, the overall impact is favorable (i.e. the net impact of deploying these vehicles is decreased emissions from the transportation and electricity generation sectors)

Methods

Results

Conclusion