Читать книгу Smart Charging Solutions for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles - Группа авторов - Страница 42

EVs are looked upon as a key to unleashing the potential of clean transportation and low-carbon emission electricity. The push for electrification of the transport sector has brought changes in the operations of current utility grids with a rise in the integration of renewable energy sources. Renewable energy sources are spatially distributed in nature; EVs’ mobility and the capability to smart charge and discharge are seen as impactful in integrating renewables to the grid. The outlook of smart charging infrastructure has a wide perspective, which is drawn based on the geography of the land where the infrastructure will be developed, the system analysis time frame, the focus of the impact study, and the society.

The geography of the land helps decide the type of control architecture to be deployed for smart charging. Apart from control architecture, the availability of renewables is also considered. Consider a remotely located region with hilly terrain. The control architecture for such a region is preferred to be distributed, due to capital investment in developing communication architecture. The availability of renewables introduces another opportunity to develop an isolated grid rather than connecting to a larger grid. Hence, the potential of renewables in generating electricity is analyzed and, if the power generation can meet the load demand, an isolated grid is developed. An isolated grid will have a separate control and communication system whose design and deployment will require less capital investment. Apart from less capital investment, deploying smart charging infrastructure on an isolated generation system will be less complicated, easier to monitor, control, and operate, and have a low risk of losses incurred due to the controller’s failure or any fault in the system.

The time frame of analysis is another vital aspect to be considered while planning to deploy a smart charging infrastructure. The time frame can have short term or long-term impact. Short-term impact analysis is helpful in operational planning and to perform upgrading of the system. The local impact and system-wide impact are required to be accessed at a regular interval of time. The impact study can result in invaluable insights that can help increase reliability and long-term sustainability. The integration of renewables and an extension of services provided by EVs, such as peak load management and ancillary services, can be made using time frame analysis [66, 79].

The impact study is not limited to technical analysis and proposed upgrades; social acceptance is another barrier to be considered while pushing the use of EVs in the transportation sector. Social acceptance is dependent on the existing grid infrastructure, services provided, and reliability. The smart charging infrastructure is dependent on electricity to operate and manage. Hence, before planning for shifting towards smart charging, it is essential to build confidence by increasing power reliability with the least outages. A balance between society’s interest (subsidized charging cost and support if subscribed to smart charging) and the operators’ (profits to hold operation and management of company/organization) of smart charging is required [80, 81]. Policy support worldwide also plays a significant role in the social acceptance of EVs and smart charging. Socio-technical analysis at different time frames and implementing recommendations at regular intervals can facilitate greater business opportunities to both operators and EV users [82].