Trucking companies thinking about replacing today’s diesel-powered 18-wheelers with electric rigs could save on fuel costs if their charging stations were augmented with distributed generation, or on-site power storage and sophisticated electronics allowing for “managed” charging at times when grid power prices are at their lowest.

These are the main conclusions of a study commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund a year ago and released this week. Another conclusion is that when the switch from diesel to electric trucks is industry-wide, the conversion could make the grid stronger.

These findings and underlying analysis of granular data collected from two national trucking fleets operating in California — NFI Group and Schneider National — come just as President Biden announced his infrastructure plans. (See related story, Biden Infrastructure Plan Would Boost Clean Energy.)

EDF commissioned California-based Gladstein Neandross & Associates (GNA) to do a comprehensive analysis of the data involving more than 90 Class 8 diesel trucks, traveling a total of nearly 5 million miles over assigned routes during the course of a year. The organization describes the resulting findings as looking “beyond the cost of replacing [diesel] vehicles and toward the upfront infrastructure costs and other considerations of electrifying heavy-duty truck fleets.”

It concludes that electric trucks now emerging, as well as current commercially available charging systems, would be capable of handling the loads and offering fuel savings.

In crunching the numbers, GNA “found that electrification has the potential to save these companies $550,000 (Schneider) and $750,000 (NFI) in annual fuel costs,” based on diesel and electric prices over the year in which data were collected.

But the cost of charging stations as well as the extra load that electrified trucking would add to utility distribution lines are major obstacles that must be addressed immediately, EDF argues.

The environmental group reasons that federal and state subsidies or other incentives to build dedicated distributed solar generation as well as more research into heavy-duty battery storage to support managed or “smart” charging stations “will be critical to this transition.”

Managed charging — buying the power at its lowest price points, for example — would not only save trucking fleets significant amounts of money; it would also lessen the burden on the grid, the report argues.

“Managed charging allows fleets to use real-time data like grid load and electricity cost to determine optimum charging schedules and provides benefits to the fleet owner, the utility and the environment,” the report summarizes. “With the proper rate design, utilities can encourage off-peak charging or charging when renewable energy resources are plentiful. This would reduce stress on the grid, save fleet owners money and reduce emissions from fossil fuel power plants.”

In a blog post announcing the landmark study, Pamela MacDougall, senior manager of grid modernization engineering and strategy for EDF’s Energy Program, wrote, “Managed charging can make or break the affordability of charging for fleets and reduce grid needs.”

MacDougall characterized distributed renewable generation as a kind of behind-the-meter buttress for the charging station, calling it “a perfect solution to reducing charging costs for heavy-duty fleets, which are often burdened with short but high-energy demand events that significantly increase their impact on the grid and energy bills.”

In some of the scenarios analyzed, “managed charging resulted in annual savings of upwards of $130,000,” she wrote, savings that a trucking company could then use to help pay for the technology supporting managed charging.

Electrification of heavy trucks would also have a major environmental impact.

“Electrifying them would eliminate on-road emissions like carbon dioxide, combustion-related particulate matter and nitrogen oxides. If charged with clean renewable electricity, such a transition could be even more powerful by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions generated by fossil fuel electricity,” MacDougall wrote.

In an interview, MacDougall argued that government involvement at this point is critical, explaining that “having [government] programs that incentivize [distributed generation] is going to help fleets transition quickly and lower their grid impact as well for other ratepayers.”

She argued that a buildout of smart charging stations supporting the trucking industry would strengthen the grid and increase its resilience.

EDF also reasons that while the study envisioned in-house charging for the routes served by the two trucking companies participating in the study, a broader conclusion is that as numerous trucking fleets are electrified, it will make sense to build common charging stations accessible to many fleets as their trucks pick up or deliver goods, for example, at the Port of Los Angeles.

And that is why the trucking industry will need assistance.

“A final finding may be that even with distributed energy resources and managed charging … the cost of infrastructure is heavily burdensome for fleets and there is a need for some sort of either state, federal or utility program to help bring down the cost of that infrastructure for them,” MacDougall concluded in the interview.