Fast charging during the day will be expensive for trucks and thus be
unpopular.
The fast charger operator will take a cut, and the grid operator will
charge peak rates for electricity.
Passenger EV's don't typically use fast chargers, they charge at more
reasonable speeds and rates at home. You want to take a trip, then you
are willing to pay extra to fast charge on the road. Fast charging is
like eating in a restaurant. Most folks see it as a waste of money on a
daily basis and eat at home for far less money.
Economics will shape the industry and will determine how and when trucks
will charge. Unlike passenger cars, trucks are very price sensitive and
will opt for the least expensive option. The available surplus grid
capacity will set the price of electricity, and the trucking industry
will find the most economical electricity price.
EV trucks will seldom be recharged on route at high electricity costs
with the driver being paid to wait. It is not economic as the trucking
company will lose money and it simply will not be done. (Or be done
rarely.) EV trucks will no doubt be used for runs that are within their
battery range.
Bill D.
On 11/25/2022 4:58 AM, Peri Hartman via EV wrote:
Hi Bill,
I'm going to push back, not specifically to argue, but to get clearer
on the details. I hope you can fill in where I'm vague or counter
where I'm wrong.
If an EV semi can charge overnight, that helps. Let's sketch some calcs.
Let's say overnight is 10 hours and the battery is 1MWh. If just one
truck charges, that's a benign 100kW supply. According to
https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/infrastructure/truck_parking/jasons_law/truckparkingsurvey/ch2.htm#:~:text=Approximately%2039%20percent%20of%20facilities,provide%2025%20to%2099%20spaces.&text=The%20presence%20of%20shower%20facilities,meals%2C%20entertainment%2C%20etc.)
39% have 1-24 overnight spaces and 40% have 25 to 99. Let's use 50
trucks in this sketch. So the typical truck stop needs to accommodate
50 * 100kW = 5MW. That's a pretty good load.
Sure, local PV + a huge battery on site would help, but I think the
grid has to be part of the solution. I presume 5MW in most locations
is still not a big problem, though.
But, now, let's look a short term rapid charging. While truck drivers
on long trips do need to stop overnight (or over day) to sleep, if
they drive 500 miles in a day, they'll almost certainly need to charge
at least once en route. Let's say for one hour at 500kWh. At any given
moment, there could be (guessing) 20 trucks stopped for an hour. That
would be a 10MW power draw. Now, I'll guess, the grid could be pushed
beyond capacity along some highways. Don't forget, the grid is also
going to have to handle new loads from EV cars, etc.
A large local battery and solar panels would help by evening out the
peaks and, perhaps, storing some energy captured during the day for
use at night. And, over time, perhaps it could be built out enough to
be quite significant. But the grid still needs to be there because,
you know, there are cloudy days, etc.
And, yes, truck drivers do drive at night. My anecdotal experience
along the I5 corridor on the US west coast is that most trucks are on
the freeway at night. There's too much traffic during the day. That
means, "overnight" charging can happen during the day.
In summary, I don't know enough about grid capacity to know how many
highways could handle these example loads or not. Your point is well
taken that, if truckers can charge during periods when there's less
load on the grid, that will help significantly. Perhaps most can. I
can imagine new apps that give real time variable pricing and pricing
projections, e.g. charging available in 10 miles at $0.20/kWh now, or
in 100 miles, two hours awat at $0.12/kWh, giving the driver some
choices to mull over.
Peri
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