Researchers Dipanjan Ghose, S Sivaranjani, and Junjie Qin from the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a new approach to planning power grids for dynamic wireless electric vehicle charging systems. Their work, published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, addresses the unique challenges posed by these systems and offers a practical solution for integrating them into the existing grid infrastructure.
Dynamic wireless electric vehicle charging (DWC) is an emerging technology that allows electric vehicles (EVs) to charge while driving on electrified roadways. This technology has the potential to significantly reduce battery sizes, eliminate charging downtime, and alleviate range anxiety, particularly for long-haul transportation and fleet operations. However, DWC systems introduce new challenges for power system planning due to their short-duration and high-power demands, which can strain the grid if not properly managed.
The researchers’ traffic-aware grid planning framework addresses these challenges by integrating traffic behavior and EV energy consumption into the planning process. The framework uses a macroscopic Cell Transmission Model of traffic flow to estimate real-time, spatiotemporal EV charging demand from DWC corridors. This demand model is then integrated into an AC Optimal Power Flow based formulation to optimally size a microgrid that supports DWC under varying traffic conditions while minimizing the cost of operation.
The researchers demonstrated their framework on data from a 14-mile segment of the I-210W highway in California, USA, evaluating multiple traffic scenarios like free-flow, severe congestion, accidents of varying severity, and natural disasters like forest fires. Their results showed that traffic-aware grid planning significantly reduces infrastructure costs compared to worst-scenario based modeling, while ensuring reliability of service in terms of meeting charging demands under diverse traffic conditions.
This research has important implications for the energy sector, particularly for utilities and grid operators looking to integrate DWC systems into their networks. By providing a practical framework for traffic-aware grid planning, the researchers have offered a solution that can help reduce costs and improve the reliability of these emerging technologies. As the adoption of EVs continues to grow, the need for innovative solutions like this one will only become more pressing.
The research was published in the IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
This article is based on research available at arXiv.