Vehicle to Grid regulation services of electric delivery trucks: Economic and environmental benefit analysis

Concerns regarding the fuel costs and climate change impacts associated with petroleum combustion are among the main driving factors for the adoption of electric vehicles. Future commercial delivery truck fleets may include Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Extended Range Electric Vehicles (EREVs); in addition to savings on fuel and maintenance costs, the introduction of these grid accessible electric vehicles will also provide fleet owners with possible Vehicle to Grid (V2G) opportunities. This study investigates the potential net present revenues and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission mitigation of V2G regulation services provided by electric trucks in a typical fleet. The total cost of ownership and the life-cycle GHG emissions of electric trucks are also analyzed and compared to those of traditional diesel trucks. To account for uncertainties, possible ranges for key parameters are considered instead of only considering fixed single data values for each parameter. The results of this research indicate that providing V2G regulation services for electric trucks could yield considerable additional revenues ($20,000-50,000) and significant GHG emission savings (approximately 300 ton CO2) compared to conventional diesel trucks.