Abstract
Electric vehicles (EVs) can have massive benefits in energy sector especially for a small island country like the Maldives that imports oil with high transportation costs while power could have been generated from abundantly available local renewable resources. However, EV charging may also impose significant investment requirement for the power system that needs to be analyzed carefully including the capacity of the existing distribution network system, investments needed in solar PV together with battery storage and additional diesel capacity to meet the incremental demand from EVs. We explore an EV adoption scenario for Maldives for 2030 with 30% of all vehicles including two-wheelers that dominate the transport on the island under two different charging regimes: uncoordinated and optimized coordinated mode. The latter is achieved through a system wide optimization using a modified version of the World Bank Electricity Planning Model (EPM) that optimizes charging load subject to a range of constraints on allowable timing for different categories of vehicles. If charging from the fleet is uncoordinated, a relatively small increase in energy requirement of 3.1% due to EV may lead to a 26.1% increase in generation capacity requirement and hence 15.7% additional investment. While the optimized charging regime helps to drastically cut down on generation capacity requirements to just 1.8% increase and also considerably eases feeder loading, it may also lead to higher emissions as more EV load during off-peak hours lead to an increase in diesel-based generation. We have therefore explored an additional scenario wherein the annual emissions from the power sector are constrained to the baseline (“No EV”) scenario. The analysis shows the importance of focused modeling analysis to understand the ramifications of EV load impact on the power system including significant increase in generation capacity and potential increase in power sector emissions in a fossil-fuel dominated system.
Highlights
We present the methodology to incorporate the Electric vehicles (EVs) charging demand in the long-term capacity expansion model and evaluate the impact of the additional load on the power system operation, costs, emissions and investment decisions
Some of the studies do point to a substantial need to upgrade the distribution network that may add in excess of 5000 USD per EV
Capacity expansion studies indicate that investments in new flexible gas units are needed in the system after large scale EV introduction with uncoordinated charging
Summary
The investment requirement to upgrade the grid, additional generation capacity requirements, increase in operational costs and changes in emissions profile, are important metrics to understand the full array of impacts Some of these assessments are available mostly for developed countries where EVs have been introduced. If the Maldives is able to transition towards a combination of sustainable power and transport systems that are based on cleaner forms of electricity generation, it would reduce the country’s reliance on fuel imports but significantly reduce air pollution in the capital Malé, and boost the tourism industry by building a more positive image of the country [19]. With the need for flexibility in the power system to deploy more renewables sources of electricity and high fuels costs, implementation of electrified passenger and public transportation systems may bring significant economic and environmental benefits for these nations by providing the required storage and grid service solutions when an appropriate EV deployment strategy is being considered [20]
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