Medium Duty Plug in Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure

Introduction

This project, sponsored by the Department of Energy through the Electric Power Research Institute, provides opportunities for local power companies in the Tennessee Valley to deploy medium-duty plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV bucket, pickup trucks and vans) as part of their service fleets. The benefits of this project are reduced vehicle emissions in the TVA region and the potential to improve off-peak electric load management.

Project Description

After a local power company meets certain requirements, TVA may provide partial funding to help pay for the vehicle and the supporting charging infrastructure. Project participants co-fund total vehicle and infrastructure costs. Additional funds are available for development, implementation and/or management of supporting charging infrastructure for each vehicle in the areas served by participating local power companies. TVA is developing advanced electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) to maximize energy and environmental benefits through “smart” charging. TVA will provide these charging stations to project participants and will partially fund their installation. Charging infrastructure and installation will be provided in at least two locations. One location will be at the vehicle depot; the other location will be in a public area of the local power company’s service area to encourage adoption of electric vehicles.

Project Implementation

After contractual relationships are established to manage all applicable requirements, participants and vehicle numbers will be finalized, project parameters quantified, and tracking processes established. Advanced EVSE and charging infrastructure is being developed along with technology optimization strategies.

Existing relationships between TVA and local power companies will be used to help promote use of cleaner transportation technologies while encouraging replacement of older local power company service vehicles. To achieve anticipated net improvements in emissions, participants will be required to decommission comparable-sized vehicle that have been approved by TVA. Vehicle use will be tracked and reported by participants to TVA and its agents each month until the project ends March 26, 2017.