Optimal Planning Strategy for Reconfigurable Electric Vehicle Chargers in Car Parks

Bingkun Song (), Udaya K. Madawala () and Craig A. Baguley
Additional contact information
Bingkun Song: Department of Electrical, Computer and Software Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Auckland, Auckland 1023, New Zealand
Udaya K. Madawala: Department of Electrical, Computer and Software Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Auckland, Auckland 1023, New Zealand
Craig A. Baguley: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, School of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland 1142, New Zealand

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 20, 1-21

Abstract: A conventional electric vehicle charger (EVC) charges only one EV concurrently. This leads to underutilization whenever the charging power is less than the EVC-rated capacity. Consequently, the cost-effectiveness of conventional EVCs is limited. Reconfigurable EVCs (REVCs) are a new technology that overcomes underutilization by allowing multiple EVs to be charged concurrently. This brings a cost-effective charging solution, especially in large car parks requiring numerous chargers. Therefore, this paper proposes an optimal planning strategy for car parks deploying REVCs. The proposed planning strategy involves three stages. An optimization model is developed for each stage of the proposed planning strategy. The first stage determines the optimal power rating of power modules inside each REVC, and the second stage determines the optimal number and configuration of REVCs, followed by determining the optimal operation plan for EV car parks in the third stage. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed optimal planning strategy, a comprehensive case study is undertaken using realistic car parking scenarios with 400 parking spaces, electricity tariffs, and grid infrastructure costs. Compared to deploying other conventional EVCs, the results convincingly indicate that the proposed optimal planning strategy significantly reduces the total cost of investment and operation while satisfying charging demands.

Keywords: electric vehicle (EV); reconfigurable electric vehicle chargers (REVCs); planning; EV car park; operation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/20/7204/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/20/7204/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:20:p:7204-:d:1265295

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().