The Development and Evaluation of a Highly-Resolved California Electricity Market Model to Characterize the Temporal and Spatial Grid, Environmental, and Economic Impacts of Electric Vehicles

Drastic changes need to occur in the electricity generation and transportation sectors in order to address environmental concerns that have attracted attention in recent years. These concerns, combined with increasing energy prices, have led to elevated interest in alternative, and low to non-carbon technologies in both sectors from both researchers and policymakers. In the state of California, integration of renewable resources, and switching to more environmental-friendly transportation options, have been mandated by stringent environmental regulations such as AB 32, AB 118, and RPS goals.;A spatially and temporally resolved resource dispatch model is developed that simulates the operations of an electricity market while taking into account all the physical constraints associated with various components of an electricity grid such as transmission system constraints. Multiple modules are also developed to provide inputs to the model and also determine the interaction between electricity generation and transportation sectors.;This dispatch model and its modules are used to assess a selected set of future transportation and electricity generation scenarios. These scenarios include various dispatch strategies, integration of renewables, and deploying plug-in electric vehicles.;The results show that with appropriate planning, the generation, transmission, and distribution sectors will be able to accommodate a high penetration of plug-in vehicles, and they will result in an overall reduction in criteria pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions. With vehicle smart charging, the need for planning in the generation sector is minimized and the installed generators will be able to handle the extra load caused by the vehicles.;Different dispatch strategies are developed and results indicate that the best approach to reduce emissions while keeping the system's costs at acceptable levels is a combination of economic and environmental dispatch strategies. This strategy can also be used to dispatch renewable resources as a part of the market instead of using the current must-take strategy.;The methodology and the tools developed provide a means to examine various aspects of future scenarios and their impacts on different sectors, and can be used for decision making and planning purposes.