Developments in Electric Vehicle Charging Station Infrastructure

Dear Colleagues,

The Guest Editors are inviting submissions to a Special Issue of Energies on the subject area of “Developments in Electric Vehicle Charging Station (EVCS) Infrastructure and Present Scenarios”. Electric vehicles (EV) are becoming important agents of reducing carbon footprints and environmental pollution across the globe. However, electric vehicles have been suffering from two major bottlenecks, namely poor range and limited attractiveness. Nevertheless, the current bottleneck for the take-up of EV adoption is the lack of sufficient feasible charging facilities. EV penetration leads to huge energy demand on distribution networks and also needs different modes of access to charging points such as the home, workplace, and/or public charging. Thus, take-up of electric vehicles and customer preference for these vehicles are highly dependent on proper infrastructure development for electric vehicle charging stations.

Key issues that need extensive exploration and research for charging station infrastructure development are as outlined below:

• Global and country-specific technical challenges for developing EVCS infrastructure;
• Impact of EVCS integration on distribution network operation, load characteristics, and consumption pattern at distribution level;
• Management of EVCS energy demand to ensure adherence to power quality guidelines with minimum losses and total harmonic distortion;
• Application of intelligent methods, IoT, and smart technology to manage the operation of EVCS;
• Impact of EVCS integration on protection systems and asset management and upgrades in an existing power grid;
• Planning of EVCS deployment taking into account the stochastic nature of traffic network in a region;
• Technological innovation and upgrades for EVCS infrastructure to keep up with the technological advancements in an EV, e.g., EV battery and automobile mechanism or with growth of the EV customer base in developing and developed countries.

Extensive research is being carried out for charging station technology development, placement, real-time energy management, and fault diagnostics so that they operate smoothly to meet the needs of existing traffic networks and usage. Research is also taking place to explore the impact of charging station integration into national grids on power grid operation and protection, power quality, energy consumption profile, and grid assets. The application of renewable energy systems and energy storage, artificial intelligence (AI), big data analysis and data-driven management strategies, smart metering and communication technologies, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are also suitable topics on which power and energy researchers are finding ever-increasing interest for a deeper exploration of proper applications to EV charging station infrastructure development, placement, and management.

This Special Issue will deal with cutting-edge developments in electric vehicle charging station infrastructure to alleviate current challenges. Topics of interest for this publication include but are not limited to:

• Challenges and opportunities for EVCS development and deployment;
• Applications of AI-based intelligent systems in EVCS developments;
• EVCS impacts on electric distribution and transmission systems;
• Renewable energy system applications in EVCS developments;
• Hybrid renewable energy power plants for EVCS;
• Automotive energy storage and supply systems;
• Smart grid for vehicle-to-grid infrastructure;
• EV adoption and big energy demand;
• Smart metering and communication;
• IoT in EVCS energy management;
• Power electronics and controls;
• Power quality and protection;
• Energy management systems;
• Demand side management;
• Energy storage systems;
• EVCS load modeling;
• Charger penetration;
• Wireless charging;
• EVCS placements;
• DC fast charging;
• Voltage stability;
• Cyber security;
• Data analytics;
• AC charging.

Dr. Sunetra Chowdhury
Prof. Dr. SP Daniel Chowdhury
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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