City of Dallas

At a Glance

Industry

Government/Public Administration

Project Types

Clean and Renewable Energy, Zero Emission Vehicles, Freight and Logistics, Goals/Targets

Year

2021

Location

Dallas, TX

Summary

Pranav Gopal developed a Fleet Electrification and Emissions Reduction Plan for the Dallas Airport System.

Goals

The Dallas Airport System aspires to be the city leader in climate action. To achieve this, they enlisted Pranav Gopal to analyze the department’s current fleet, understand the logistical needs of each of the department’s 20 major divisions, and identify potential fleet electrification opportunities within each division to reduce GHG and Air Pollutant emissions, as well as reduce the overall fleet Total Cost of Ownership.

Solutions

Pranav approached the challenge using a three-part process:

  1. Baseline Fleet Assessment: First, he surveyed each division manager to understand how every vehicle is used within their sub-fleet (duty cycle, annual mileage, terrain requirements, idling time, etc.), and compiled the survey responses into a comprehensive fleet study document.
  2. Emissions Analysis: Then, he used the US DOE AFLEET Tool to identify which vehicle categories significantly contributed to the current fleet’s lifetime well-to-wheels GHG and Air Pollutant emissions, as well as showcase the potential emission reductions that would result from replacing those vehicles with an electric equivalent.
  3. Total Cost of Ownership Comparison: Finally, he factored in the fuel, maintenance, infrastructure, and externality costs as well as grant funding and carbon taxes to compare the TCO between an all-gas and an all-electric fleet.

Potential Impact

Replacing the gas sedans and light-duty pickup trucks in the fleet with electric equivalents would result in an annual GHG emissions reduction of over 25% and an annual Air Pollutant emissions reduction of 50%. Additionally, down-sizing the diesel medium-duty pickup trucks to an electric light-duty equivalent would further reduce the GHG emissions by an additional 20% annually.

Both all-electric sedan and light-duty pickup truck fleets can achieve price parity with the current gasoline fleet even with the higher upfront infrastructure cost, if appropriate airport specific grant funding is received.


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