Powering the Future: Electric Vehicle Charging Profile Impact on California's Future Energy Storage Needs

This research investigates the implications of light-duty electric vehicle (EV) charging patterns on energy storage requirements for California. The study examines three plausible EV charging profiles and incorporates energy storage technologies with 4-, 8-, and 12-hour durations. Assuming that light-duty EVs are charged with solar power coupled with storage, changing the plausible charging profile varies the needed storage (as reflected by the power rating, energy rating, and modeled cost) by up to 80%. Remarkably, the relative differences in the amount of the added storage among the three cases decrease as the model switches to deploy longer-duration instead of 4-hour storage, suggesting the potential to reduce the impact of different load patterns and a reduced necessity for investments in public charging station infrastructure. Specifically, 8-hour storage provides a good trade-off between the needed power and energy storage capacity and establishing extensive public charging infrastructure.