Economics and Finance

Joint Fleet Sizing and Charging System Planning for Autonomous Electric Vehicles

Hongcai Zhang
Colin Sheppard
Tim Lipman
Scott Moura
2020

This paper studies the joint fleet sizing and charging system planning problem for a company operating a fleet of autonomous electric vehicles (AEVs) for passenger and goods transportation. Most of the relevant published papers focus on intracity scenarios and adopt heuristic approaches, e.g., agent based simulation, which do not guarantee optimality. In contrast, we propose a mixed integer linear programming model for intercity scenarios. This model incorporates comprehensive considerations of 1) limited AEV driving range; 2) optimal AEV routing and relocating operations; 3) time-varying...

Charging Infrastructure Demands of Shared-Use Autonomous Electric Vehicles in Urban Areas

Hongcai Zhang
Colin Sheppard
Tim Lipman
Teng Zeng
Scott Moura
2020

Ride-hailing is a clear initial market for autonomous electric vehicles (AEVs) because it features high vehicle utilization levels and strong incentive to cut down labor costs. An extensive and reliable network of recharging infrastructure is the prerequisite to launch a lucrative AEV ride-hailing fleet. Hence, it is necessary to estimate the charging infrastructure demands for an AEV fleet in advance. This study proposes a charging system planning framework for a shared-use AEV fleet providing ride-hailing services in urban area. We first adopt an agent-based simulation model, called BEAM...

Exploring Bidirectional Charging Strategies for an Electric Vehicle Population

Soomin Woo
Leo Strobel
Yuhao Yuan
Marco Pruckner
Tim Lipman
2025

Vehicle-grid integration (VGI) technologies control the energy exchange of electric vehicles (EVs) with power grids for economic and environmental benefits. Despite early investigations, it is still unclear how VGI operations should be designed to balance the goals of mobility needs and electrical grid operational costs. In this paper, our objectives are to examine VGI strategies including bidirectional or vehicle-to-grid (V2G) concepts reflecting realistic operation scenarios, evaluate the performance of the proposed strategies using actual EV charging data and future concepts for hourly...

Economic and Environmental Benefits for Electricity Grids from Spatiotemporal Optimization of Electric Vehicle Charging

Soomin Woo
Zhe Fu
Elpiniki Apostolaki-Iosifidou
Tim Lipman
2021
This article addresses the problem of estimating the potential economic and environmental gains for utility grids of shifting the electric-vehicle (EV) charging time and location. The current literature on shifting EV charging loads has been limited by real-world data availability and has typically therefore relied on simulated studies. Collaborating with a large automobile company and a major utility grid operator in California, this research used actual EV operational data and grid-operation data including locational marginal prices, marginal-grid-emission-rate data, and renewable-energy-...

Fuel Cell Systems: Total Cost of Ownership

Max Wei
Ahmad Mayyas
Tim Lipman
Hanna Breunig
Roberto Scataglini
Shuk Han Chan
Joshua Chien
David Gosselin
Nadir Saggiorato
Adam Weber
2019

Fuel cells are an electrochemical technology that are reaching the market in transportation and are a growing market in stationary power systems for backup power, primary power, combined heat and power, and materials handling equipment. The first part of this entry describes the manufacturing cost reductions from PEM and SOFC technologies that are estimated from higher-volume fuel cell manufacturing from economies of scale and improvements in overall yield. Fuel cells combined heat and power systems have the capability to displace grid electricity and on-site fuel combustion. In general...

A Total Cost of Ownership Model for Low Temperature PEM Fuel Cells in Combined Heat and Power and Backup Power Applications

Max Wei
Tim Lipman
Ahmad Mayyas
Joshua Chien
Shuk Han Chan
David Gosselin
Hanna Breunig
Michael Stadler
Thomas McKone
Paul Beattie
Patricia Chong
Whitney Colella
Brian James
2014

A total cost of ownership model is described for low temperature proton exchange membrane stationary fuel cell systems for combined heat and power (CHP) applications from 1-250kW and backup power applications from 1-50kW. System designs and functional specifications for these two applications were developed across the range of system power levels. Bottom-up cost estimates were made for balance of plant costs, and detailed direct cost estimates for key fuel cell stack components were derived using design-for-manufacturing-and-assembly techniques. The development of high throughput,...

Modeling the Future California Electricity Grid and Renewable Energy Integration with Electric Vehicles

Florian Triel
Tim Lipman
2020

This study focuses on determining the impacts and potential value of unmanaged and managed uni-directional and bi-directional charging of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) to integrate intermittent renewable resources in California in the year 2030. The research methodology incorporates the utilization of multiple simulation tools including V2G-SIM, SWITCH, and GridSim. SWITCH is used to predict a cost-effective generation portfolio to meet the renewable electricity goals of 60% in California by 2030. PEV charging demand is predicted by incorporating mobility behavior studies and...

The CO2 Abatement Potential of California's Mid-Sized Commericial Buildings

Michael Stadler
Chris Marnay
Gonçalo Cardoso
Tim Lipman
Olivier Mégel
Srirupa Ganguly
Afzal Siddiqui
Judy Lai
2009

The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is working with the California Energy Commission (CEC) to determine the potential role of commercial sector distributed generation (DG) with combined heat and power (CHP) capability deployment in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reductions. CHP applications at large industrial sites are well known, and a large share of their potential has already been harvested. In contrast, relatively little attention has been paid to the potential of medium-sized commercial buildings, i.e. ones with peak electric loads ranging from 100 kW to 5...

Evaluating Smart Charging Strategies Using Real-World Data from Optimized Plugin Electric Vehicles

Sierra Spencer
Zhe Fu
Elpiniki Apostolaki-Iosifidou
Tim Lipman
2021

Management of electric vehicle (EV) charging is likely to be critical in avoiding large increases in peak electricity demand and subsequent build outs of generation and distribution infrastructure. Additionally, management of EV charging can help to more effectively utilize renewable energy resources. This study analyzed charging data from a real-world pilot program, the largest household-based study to date to analyze the effectiveness of different smart charging use cases at reducing charging costs and increasing utilization of renewable energy. The study included six different use cases...

A Total Cost of Ownership Model for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells in Combined Heat and Power and Power-Only Applications

Roberto Scataglini
Ahmad Mayyas
Max Wei
Shuk Han Chan
Tim Lipman
David Gosselin
Anna D’ Alessio
Hanna Breunig
Whitney Colella
2015

A total cost of ownership model (TCO) is described for emerging applications in stationary fuel cell systems. Solid oxide fuel cell systems (SOFC) for use in combined heat and power (CHP) and poweronly applications from 1 to 250 kilowatts-electric (kWe1) are considered. The total cost of ownership framework expands the direct manufacturing cost modeling framework of other studies to include operational costs and life-cycle impact assessment of possible ancillary financial benefits during operation and at end-of-life. These include credits for reduced emissions of global warming gases such...