Assessing Reliability and Economic Viability of Different EV Charging Station Configurations

Abstract

With the increasing popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) as a mode of transportation, companies are prioritizing the development of charging infrastructure to cater to customer needs. Despite efforts to align charging station designs with distribution system requirements, maintaining reliability for EV charging ports remains challenging. To enhance reliability, a novel 56-ported design incorporating both uniform and non-uniform port arrangements has been proposed. These configurations have been tested with distribution systems ranging from 50 to 500 kW. Reliability assessments were conducted using standards outlined failure rate estimation and monte-carlo functions for evaluating port probability functions in terms of failure rate and reliability. By analyzing the failure rates of individual ports, an evaluation process was introduced to determine the overall success rate of the charging station. The failure rate of the proposed 56-ported charging station was further evaluated using the binomial distribution method. Additionally, cost estimation procedures were implemented considering the failure and success rates of individual port maintenance for the proposed configuration. The findings indicate that achieving lower failure rates and maintenance costs is possible through improved port arrangement reliability and enhanced voltage stability.