Search Results (60)

The integration of renewable energy sources and electric vehicles has become a focal point for industries and academia due to its profound economic, environmental, and technological implications. These developments require the development of a robust intelligent home energy management system (IHEMS) to optimize energy utilization, enhance transaction security, and ensure grid stability. For this reason, this paper develops an IntelliGrid AI, an advanced system that integrates blockchain technology, deep learning (DL), and dual-energy transmission capabilities—vehicle to home (V2H) and home to vehicle (H2V). The proposed approach can dynamically optimize household energy flows, deploying real-time data and adaptive algorithms to balance energy demand and supply. Blockchain technology ensures the security and integrity of energy transactions while facilitating decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading. The core of IntelliGrid AI is an advanced Q-learning algorithm that intelligently allocates energy resources. V2H enables electric vehicles to power households during peak periods, reducing the strain on the grid. Conversely, H2V technology facilitates the efficient charging of electric cars during peak hours, contributing to grid stability and efficient energy utilization. Case studies conducted in Tunisia validate the system’s performance, showing a 20% reduction in energy costs and significant improvements in transaction efficiency. These results highlight the practical benefits of integrating V2H and H2V technologies into innovative energy management frameworks. Full article

Mobility hubs are meeting points for shared and active mobility within the existing public transport system. Despite an extensive public transportation network, private vehicle dependency remains high, indicating a critical need to enhance alternative transport modes. The aim of this study was to investigate public acceptance of smart and green mobility hubs, a crucial parameter for the successful transition from passenger cars to public transport. To achieve this objective, a stated preference survey was developed and distributed to a sample of 152 participants at two stations, namely Voula and Irakleio, that correspond to different public transport modes, tram and metro. Results indicated a generally positive attitude towards the development of green and smart mobility hubs. The survey revealed variations in commuter preferences between the two locations, with green spaces and smart charging benches being highly valued. Ultimately, this research illustrated that well-designed mobility hubs are instrumental in creating efficient, sustainable and livable urban environments, setting a new standard for future urban planning and development. The proposed interventions are expected to substantially contribute to the promotion of sustainable urban mobility in the respective areas and the broader city, enhancing quality of life and reducing the environmental footprint. Full article

As the adoption of electric vehicles accelerates, understanding the impact of public charging on the power grid is crucial. However, today, a notable gap exists in the literature regarding approaches capable of accurately estimating the expected influence of e-mobility power demand on electrical grids, especially at medium and low voltage levels. To fill this gap, in this study, a procedure is proposed to estimate the power demand patterns of public car parks in a 2030 scenario. To this end, data collected from real-life car parks in Italy are used in Monte Carlo simulations, where probabilistic daily power demand curves are created with different maximum charging powers (from 7.4 kW to ultra-fast charging). The results highlight high variability in the power demand depending on the location and type of car park. City center car parks exhibit peak demand during morning hours, linked to commercial activities, while car parks near railway stations and hospitals show demand patterns aligned with transportation and healthcare needs. Business area car parks, in contrast, have a more pronounced demand during work hours on weekdays, with much lower activity during weekends. This study also demonstrates that, in some situations, ultra-fast charging can increase peak power demand from the grid by up to 210%. Given their contribution to the existing literature, the power demand patterns from this research constitute a valuable starting point for future studies aimed at quantitatively assessing the impact of e-mobility on the power system. In addition, they can effectively support decision-makers in optimally designing the e-mobility recharge infrastructure. Full article

Fuel combustion products cause considerable damage to the environment and human health. Therefore, it is necessary to switch to environmentally friendly vehicles. This study analyzed the dynamics of the number of cars and trucks with electric and hybrid engines, predicted their number at the current rate of change in their number, and the degree of provision and potential need for charging points in European countries. According to the results obtained, 73% of the territory of the European Union has a provision of charging points below the average level. This emphasizes the need to change the approach to structuring infrastructure upgrades by systematizing the process of creating new charging points. A mathematical model was created using the least-squares method to predict the number of vehicles with environmentally friendly engines over the next three years. The predicted number of such cars in the EU in 2026 is 12.5 million, which requires an increase in the number of charging points by 2.7 times compared to the existing ones. Under such conditions, it will be possible to reduce atmospheric emissions by 120 million tons by 2024, 160 million tons by 2025, and more than 200 million tons annually by 2026. The rapid growth of charging stations will lead to an increase in the electricity demand, which, in turn, will become an impetus for a sharp increase in electricity production by alternative sources. With the timely adaptation of infrastructure to the growing needs associated with environmentally friendly transport, achieving the maximum positive effect from these innovations is possible. Full article

The market for electric cars (EVs) is growing quickly, which has led to a diversity of models and significant technological advancements, particularly in the areas of energy management, charging, range, and batteries. A thorough analysis of the scientific literature was conducted to determine the operational and technical parameters of EVs’ performance and energy efficiency, as well as the factors that influence them. This article addresses the knowledge gap on the analysis of ambient temperature-related parameters’ effects on electric garbage trucks operating in particular urban traffic conditions for selective waste collection. To optimize vehicle routes, a computational model based on the Vehicle Routing Problem was used, including the Ant Colony Optimization algorithm, considering not only the load capacity of garbage trucks but also their driving range, depending on the ambient temperature. The results show that the median value of collected bulky waste for electric waste collection vans, depending on the ambient temperature, per route is 7.1 kg/km and 220 kg/h. At a temperature of −10 °C, the number of points served by EVs is 40–64% of the number of points served by conventional vehicles. Waste collection using EVs can be carried out over short distances of up to 150 km, which constitutes 95% of the optimized routes in the analyzed case study. The research contributed to the optimal and energy-efficient use of EVs in variable temperature conditions. Full article

Hydrogen, due to its high energy density, stands out as an energy storage method for the car industry in order to reduce the impact of the automotive sector on air pollution and global warming. The fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) emerges as a modification of the electric car by adding a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) to the battery pack and electric motor, that is capable of converting hydrogen into electric energy. In order to control the energy flow of so many elements, an optimal energy management system (EMS) is needed, where rule-based strategies represent the smallest computational burden and are the most widely used in the industry. In this work, a rule-based operation mode control strategy for the EMS of an FCEV validated by different driving cycles and several tests at the strategic points of the battery state of charge (SOC) is proposed. The results obtained in the new European driving cycle (NEDC) show the 12 kW battery variation of 2% and a hydrogen consumption of 1.2 kg/100 km compared to the variation of 1.42% and a consumption of 1.08 kg/100 km obtained in the worldwide harmonized light-duty test cycle (WLTC). Moreover, battery tests have demonstrated the optimal performance of the proposed EMS strategy. Full article

This paper proposes a new approach to the design of smart charging systems. It aims to separate the role of the Smart Charging Service Provider (SCSP) from the role of the Charge Point Operator (CPO) to provide real flexibility and efficiency of mass deployment. As interoperability is required for this purpose, the challenge is to use standard equipment and protocols in the design of the smart charging Energy Management System (EMS). The use of an Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI) is crucial for an interface between the EMS and the Charge Point Operator. The smart charging EMS developed has been implemented and successfully tested with two CPOs, with different use cases: (1) EV charging infrastructure at office buildings, and (2) EV charging infrastructure installed at a public car park facility. Full article

The electrification of road transport is developing dynamically around the world. Many automotive companies are introducing electric vehicles to the market, and their popularity is constantly growing. The increasing popularity of electric vehicles is caused by individual countries’ governments encouraging people to switch to electric vehicles and their lower operating costs. In 2022, the number of electric vehicles in China will exceed 10 million. Europe and the USA rank second and third in global electric car stock, respectively. The number of available electric vehicle models is constantly growing, remaining approximately 2.5 times smaller than the case of vehicles with an internal combustion engine. Among others, a significant limitation to the popularity of electric cars is users’ fear of range and the density of the charging infrastructure network. This paper presents the objectives regarding public areas and charging stations around the European Union’s comprehensive and core transport network. It is worth noting that the vehicle and charging point’s charging connectors vary depending on the geographical region. Therefore, the currently used charging connectors for different regions are presented. Charging time depends significantly on the charging current, the power of the charging point, and the devices installed in the vehicle. The paper analyzes the limitations of charging power resulting from the onboard charger’s power and the charging point’s power. It presents the charging time of selected electric vehicles. The second aspect that is also the subject of user concerns and discussed in this article is issues related to the safety of electric vehicles. General safety indicators of such vehicles based on Euro-NCAP tests are characterized. Attention was also paid to more detailed problems related to active and passive safety and functional safety analyses. The issue of the fire hazard of electric vehicles was discussed together with modern experiences regarding post-accident procedures in the event of fires. Full article

The adoption of fully battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs) in Kuwait is currently at less than one percent of the population, and hence Kuwait has the lowest index rank among countries around the globe. Effectively, only Kuwaiti nationals have the opportunity to own EVs, as there are no fast direct-current charging stations in Kuwait, and Kuwaiti landlords (expats cannot own real estate) do not allow the installation of EV-charging home wall boxes at their rented properties. Given these facts, this paper only focuses on the preferences of Kuwaiti nationals, even though they only constitute 25 percent of the population of Kuwait. To accomplish the present objectives, a quantitative descriptive method (closed-ended questions) was used to collect data from a sample of 227 Kuwaiti nationals who were representative of the owners of half a million internal combustion engine (ICE) cars and that were categorized as early majority consumers. The findings of the present study indicate that over 50 percent of the respondents would prefer to buy an EV in the following three years when certain criteria were satisfied, including government-controlled pricing policies and recharging point availability, high-speed roads, and free EV-dedicated parking spaces. Furthermore, over 40 percent of respondents stated that they would contemplate purchasing an electric vehicle if the price of gasoline or diesel increased by 19 to 50 percent. The findings also indicated that more than 40 percent of respondents believed that EVs are fire- and crash-safe, and roughly 50 percent of the respondents would be willing to pay between 6 and 20% more for an EV because they believe that EVs are ecofriendlier vehicles and are significantly faster than conventional petrol vehicles. Additionally, respondents rewarded those vehicles with an excellent mark because of their ecological, economical, and technological attributes and benefits. Full article

Photovoltaic (PV) powered Electric Vehicle Charging Stations (PVCS) have received extensive attention recently due to the complementary relationship of PV energy and electric vehicles. This paper proposes a methodology aimed at assisting a Charging Point Operator (CPO) in determining the size of the main components of such PVCS. The modular structure of the method gives flexibility for possible use on a new sizing problem by modifying key parameters such as the EV charging demand (i.e., arrival/departure times and energy needed to fill the battery), the EV charging strategy or the business model, independently from each other. It is of particular interest for a CPO that sizes many PVCS operated in the same environment (for example, a car park at a workplace). In that case, the CPO first has to apply the method on a representative charging station. Next, he can re-use parts of the obtained results to drastically speed up (from weeks to hours) the sizing of the other charging stations. The proposed method has been applied to the EVCS of an industrial research complex in southern France. The input dataset used to apply the method consists of more than 32,000 charging transactions spanning over 6 years with 350 EV users and 80 charging points. Three charging strategies with different levels of complexity are investigated, including Mean Power, Plug and Charge, and Solar Smart Charging. The considered business model is based on the maximization of the self-production rate. The numerical findings reveal that employing a straightforward charging strategy, such as Mean Power, leads to a substantial reduction of nearly half in the required size of the PV plant compared to the basic Plug and Charge mode. In addition, our analysis demonstrates that Solar Smart Charging has the potential to decrease the PV plant size by nearly three times. Full article

Various factors, particularly an increasing share in underground cable lines, can lead to excessive reactive power demand of distribution grids to their respective transport grids and, thus, to the need of costly compensation measures. At the same time, the occurrence of battery-electric cars is considerably increasing. It is, therefore, conceivable to provide reactive power as an inexpensive “waste product” by the charging converters of the cars as a solution to the aforementioned problem. In this research work, the idea is examined for its feasibility by means of extensive time series simulation using the example of a real existing distribution grid. It was found that, with a realistic number of charging points—especially public ones with integrated converter electronics—not only can the reactive power demand be reduced to an acceptable level but also additional reactive power can be provided as a service to the transport grid. Full article

The realization of the global “Double carbon” target is closely related to the energy-saving travel of human beings. Along with the increase in the number of new energy vehicles around the world, the number of new energy vehicle charging post carports has also increased. However, the collapse of the carport of the new energy vehicle charging post often occurs. The search for ways to optimize the carport structure construction and build a lighter and more stable charging post carport structure has become one of the hot spots in the new energy vehicle industry. Dragonfly wings have a comprehensive evolution in structure, form and function, and their stiffness, stability and resistance to deformation may be a potential solution to optimize the structure of the shed roof. Inspired by this, the study designs two new energy vehicle charging pile canopies based on the dragonfly wing mesh structure to enhance the loading capacity and structural stability of the canopies. The study firstly concludes that the dragonfly wing mesh can enhance the stiffness through experimental analysis, and simulates and models the structure based on the quadrilateral mesh wrinkling and hexagonal mesh arching in its mesh morphology, combined with the national design standard of the charging pile canopy. Studies on the numerical design experiment of the new energy vehicle charging station canopy model based on finite element software under different natural loads, the deflection of shed under the action of self-weight and the deflection, tensile stress and compressive stress under external load are analyzed, and the results show that: (1) The grid structure of the dragonfly wing bionic charging pile shed can optimize the stiffness of the car charging pile shed. (2) According to the wing structure, the test results of the shed roof structure under different working conditions are better than the national standard. (3) Compared with the vertical load, the transverse load of the arched membrane structure, which is represented by the charging pile shed of the new energy vehicle, is larger. (4) According to the stress point of the shed, the structure constraint of the shed can effectively reduce the pressure on the and share part of the load, which can enhance the stability of the shed. (5) In comparison with the displacement of common carport types, the bionic carport shows superior stability and durability. The new bionic carport structure proposed by the research, with stronger pressure bearing, smaller force deformation and lighter weight, is a kind of membrane structure for stable new energy vehicle charging pile carports, which will help further the optimization and promotion of the new energy vehicle industry. Full article

Benefits from EV (Electric vehicles) and e-mobility include the reduction of local emissions of pollutants from particulate matter (PM_0.5, PM_5, and PM₁₀) and nitrogen oxides (NO_x and NO₂). Cities and urban agglomerations benefit the most from potential emission reductions from EVs due to the large number of cars utilized in most urban traffic systems. This abstract presents results from a corporate research and funding project in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany (LINOx BW) which facilitates the installation of 2358 charging points within 178 different sub-projects in 23 different cities, spanning a period of four years. Utilizing several different survey waves, data about outgoing currents from these publicly funded charging points are gathered. Converting this data utilizing car classifications and emission classes (HBEFA), the reduction of local nitrogen oxides is derived. Full article

Smart mobility supports smart city ideas and concepts. A consequences of smart mobility activities are more wide and common using electromobility. There is no doubt that electromobility is a global trend that unequivocally supports the principles of sustainable development, while being one of the basic elements of the smart mobility. The following discussion critically addresses the indicated topic, especially in the context of the barriers that currently exist and that stand in the way of implementing the expected expansion of electric cars into urban markets. Considering the following assumptions, the threat of urban pollution associated with the increasing number of vehicles (passenger and freight) should be mitigated using smart mobility solutions. In addition, solutions should include that electromobility promotes zero-emissions. Furthermore, the inadequate development of charging infrastructure and the projected energy crisis may result in plans to develop the electromobility market in cities that are under threat and impossible to meet. We highlight the current state and development level of the electric vehicle market, in particular the market for light commercial vehicles (LCVs). In this market, electric cars account for less than 1% of total cars. In truth, as shown in articles in recent years, the growth of new electric cars is significant; however, as shown by forecasts, the growth is insufficient to achieve the planned goals so the market share of LCVs will only increase to about 25% in 2030 and there will only be about 600,000 electric LCVs on the market. In this article, the authors focus on answering the question of if the upcoming energy crisis can significantly affect the further dynamic development of electromobility as an element of the smart city and undermine the plans to create zero-emission economies, with a particular focus on cities. Not only do we point to electromobility as a positive trend, but we stress that optimistic assumptions in its development in the current economic situation, especially in Europe, may be difficult to realize. The theoretical assumptions are reflected in the statistical analyses and forecasts of market development and their interpretation. Full article

To enable the deployment of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as passenger cars in the private transport sector, suitable charging infrastructure is crucial. In this paper, a methodology for the efficient spatial distribution of charging infrastructure is evaluated by investigating a scenario with a 100% market penetration of BEVs of (around 1.3 million vehicles) in Berlin, Germany. The goal of the evaluated methodology is the development of various charging infrastructure scenarios—including public and private charging—which are suitable to cover the entire charging demand. Therefore, these scenarios are investigated in detail with a focus on the number of public charging points, their spatial distributions, the available charging power, and the necessary capital costs. For the creation of these charging infrastructure scenarios, a placement model is developed. As input, it uses the data of a multi-agent transport simulation (MATSim) scenario of the metropolitan area of Berlin to evaluate and optimize different distributions of charging infrastructure. The model uses a genetic algorithm and the principle of multi-objective optimization. The capital costs of the charging points and the mean detour car drivers must undertake are used as the optimization criteria. Using these criteria, we expect to generate cost-efficient infrastructure solutions that provide high usability at the same time. The main advantage of the method selected is that multiple optimal solutions with different characteristics can be found, and suitable solutions can be selected by subsequently using other criteria. Besides the generated charging scenarios for Berlin, the main goal of this paper is to provide a valid methodology, which is able to use the output data of an agent-based, microscopic transport simulation of an arbitrary city or area (or even real driving data) and calculate different suitable charging infrastructure scenarios regarding the different optimization criteria. This paper shows a possible application of this method and provides suggestions to improve the significance of the results in future works. The optimized charging infrastructure solutions for the Berlin scenario show capital costs of between EUR 624 and 2950 million. Users must cover an additional mean detour of 254 m to 590 m per charging process to reach an available charging point. According to the results, a suitable ratio between the charging points and vehicles is between 11:1 and 5:1. A share of fast charging infrastructure (>50 kW) of less than ten percent seems to be sufficient if it is situated at the main traffic routes and highly frequented places. Full article