Development of model for increasing electric vehicle charging capacity with limited available grid power

Abstract

The article focuses on developing an operation model, how to decrease the necessary grid connection power for electric vehicle fast charging stations, based on the current electric vehicle (EV) charging tendencies in Latvia. In order to reach the goals of decreasing CO2 emissions in the transportation sector, Latvia has rolled out electric vehicle fast charging infrastructure on the main TEN-T roads. However, because this infrastructure will not be uniformly used all across Latvia, the maintenance and infrastructure costs are high. This article is examining a possibility of decreasing these costs by introduction of energy storage and renewable energy sources to lower the required grid connection power level. The specific task of the article was development of a model based on the charging data from EV charging sessions to reliably simulate possible charging scenarios as EV use will increase in the future. The model was then validated using Monte Carlo simulations and compared with the empirical results. The possibilities of grid connection power decrease were analysed. The results demonstrated that introduction of energy storage and photovoltaic energy would currently decrease the operational costs for 93 % of the EV charging stations in the Latvian fast charging network.