The conversation around decarbonizing the transportation sector is largely focused on trucking. “Although medium- and heavy-duty trucks and other larger vehicles make up less than 5 percent of vehicles on the road in the U.S., they account for nearly 30 percent of the country’s total transportation-sector greenhouse gas emissions,” Canary Media recently reported.
Electrifying the United States car and truck fleet won't just be challenging – it’s going to be very, very expensive. Huge investments will have to be made to expand charging infrastructure, prepare the grid for a huge influx of plug-in electricity demand, and shore up supplies of essential primary materials. Much of this onus will fall on utilities, but questions remain about who should actually fund this “make-ready” work.
The EDF’s study of two New York state facilities’ sales to medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles found that “socializing the costs of make-ready and distribution system upgrades necessary to meet New York State’s MDHV electrification targets are unlikely to cause ratepayer bills to increase in either of the utility service areas studied, due to being offset by the revenues contributed by MHDVs over the same period.
In layman’s terms, the study found that if the utilities continue to charge customers under existing utility tariffs, they will have more than enough revenue to fund the “make-ready” costs. It’s a win-win for everyone involved – if everything goes well, that is. Proper planning and careful management will be essential to making sure that consumers and utilities alike benefit from increased charging capacity.