PGE: Electric Semi Trucks Are 'Batteries on Wheels' for Grid Backup — SkimNews
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- Portland General Electric is positioning electric medium- and heavy-duty trucks as "batteries on wheels" capable of supporting the grid during peak load events and keeping ratepayer costs low.
- PGE transportation electrification manager Karla Hendrickson called electric trucks "grid ready assets" and singled out electric school buses as especially useful because their schedules are predictable and they sit parked for long stretches.
- PGE is already testing the ability to dispatch stored energy from Oregon's deployed fleet of electric school buses back to the grid.
- Oregon recently hosted its first fleet-focused electric ride-and-drive event, gathering Class 8 electric semis, medium-duty last-mile delivery trucks, and battery-powered equipment like wheel loaders and excavators for fleet operators and buyers.
- Oregon now has nearly 150,000 registered EVs on its roads, but the push to electrify medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles is just getting started.
- Oregon Department of Environmental Quality's Gerick Kransky noted that heavy trucks and buses represent a disproportionate share of the state's transportation emissions despite being a small portion of total vehicles.
Why it matters: PGE is reframing commercial EVs from a grid burden into a grid asset, and is already running a vehicle-to-grid pilot with electric school buses. If it scales, electrifying the small slice of heavy trucks and buses responsible for a disproportionate share of Oregon's diesel emissions could simultaneously clean tailpipes and give the utility more stored energy to manage peak demand — lowering costs for ratepayers.
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