Oregon utility Portland General Electric (“PGE”) highlights the environmental, health and grid benefits of electrifying medium- and heavy-duty commercial trucks, calling the large battery-backed trucks “batteries on wheels.”
Earlier this month, Oregon hosted its first fleet-focused electric drive event, bringing everything from Class 8 electric semi-trucks and medium-duty “last mile” delivery trucks to battery-powered equipment assets like wheel loaders and excavators together in one place so the state’s fleet operators (and fleet buyers) could experience the latest generation of commercial electric vehicles for themselves.
More importantly, Portland utility PGE was also on hand, along with local NBC News affiliate KGW8, to address one of the most common myths spread by EV detractors: the one that EVs can overload the energy grid.
PGE Transportation Electrification Manager Karla Hendrickson put that nonsense to rest decisively, touting the ability of electric trucks to help support the grid during peak load events and calling them “grid-ready assets,” capable of helping the utility manage periods of high electricity demand while keeping costs down. “Electric school buses are particularly intriguing,” adds Hendrickson. “Their schedules are predictable and they can spend long periods parked.”
PGE is already testing the ability to send power from the state’s deployed school bus fleet to the grid.
Big team, big battery
There are nearly 150,000 registered electric vehicles operating on Oregon roads today, but while the push for electric passenger vehicles gains steam and the electric charging infrastructure to support them is being built along the state’s travel corridors, the push to electrify medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles is just beginning.
As it gains steam, the push to electrify these vehicles could give the company access to more stored energy, keeping taxpayer bills down, insulating fleets from wild swings in diesel fuel prices, and (of course) helping Oregon Oregonians are breathing a little easier. Literally.
“These heavy trucks and buses represent a relatively small amount of the fleet of vehicles on Oregon roads,” explains Gerick Kransky of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. “But they account for a disproportionate amount of the emissions we face from transportation.”
FOUNTAIN: KGW8 News.
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