Assessment of Electric Vehicle Charging Costs in Presence of Distributed Photovoltaic Generation and Variable Electricity Tariffs

Marco Pasetti,Federica Foiadelli,Michela Longo,Alessandra Flammini,Stefano Rinaldi

doi:10.3390/en12030499

Marco Pasetti, Federica Foiadelli + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/en12030499

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Journal: Energies	Publication Date: Feb 5, 2019
Citations: 21	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Politecnico di Milano, University of Brescia

Abstract

In this paper a general model for the estimation of the uncoordinated charging costs of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in the presence of distributed and intermittent generation, and variable electricity tariffs is presented. The proposed method aims at estimating the monthly average cost of uncoordinated charging of a single EV depending on the hour at which the EV is plugged into the EV Supply Equipment (EVSE). The feasibility and relevance of the proposed model is verified by applying the considered cost estimation method to a suitable use case. A single EV charging service offered at a public building equipped with a Photovoltaic (PV) system has been considered as reference case. The proposed model has been applied to the PV production and loads consumption data collected during one year, and the results of the study compared with the Time-Of-Use (TOU) electricity tariff. The application of the proposed model identified noticeable deviations among the computed EV charging costs and the reference TOU profile, with differences up to 40%, depending on the considered month and on the time of charging during the day. It can be concluded that such model could be used to properly detect opportunities of energy savings, and to define dedicated EV price signals that could help to promote the optimal use of distributed energy resources.

Highlights

The increasing pressure towards decarbonized and sustainable energy systems is heavily affecting the transportation sector, which is progressively called for a radical shift from traditional internal combustion engines (ICEs) towards greener solutions
electric vehicles (EVs) charging cycle starting at hour s of month m, C s,mFU is the term related to the increase of energy consumption from the grid, C s,mTU is the loss of revenues due to the decrease of the amount of energy sold to the utility
For each day of month m, and for each hour s, an EV charging process starting at hour s was simulated by adding the EV charging power profile to the measured loads power profile

Summary

Introduction

The increasing pressure towards decarbonized and sustainable energy systems is heavily affecting the transportation sector, which is progressively called for a radical shift from traditional internal combustion engines (ICEs) towards greener solutions. The growing concerns on the anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to the use of road vehicles [1], and on their effect on the air pollution in urban centers [2], are calling for a rapid decarbonization of the urban mobility. From this perspective, electric vehicles (EVs) are generally considered one of the most promising solution, thanks to their independence from the primary energy source, and to the total absence of direct GHG and pollutant emissions. EVs, avoid the direct combustion of fossil fuels, and might help to mitigate the drawbacks caused by intermittent renewable energy sources (RESs), e.g., by potentially acting as storage solutions [5,6,7].

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