Carnegie Mellon University
April 01, 2015

Policy Briefs: Electric Vehicles

charging at night studyIn a new study, published in Environmental Science & Technology, EPP researchers Allison WeisJeremy MichalekPaulina Jaramillo, and Roger Lueken find that charging plug-in electric vehicles at night can produce increased emissions in certain geographic areas.

For power plants, throttling the speed at which electric vehicles charge can reduce operating costs, largely by shifting load to inexpensive coal-fired power plants available at night. As a result, the health and environmental costs of the resulting air pollution outweigh operational cost savings in the PJM region, which includes Washington, D.C., Chicago, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.  

Read more about this and related studies in the EPP Policy Briefs