Abstract
The rising concerns about global warming and environmental pollution are increasingly pushing towards the replacement of road vehicles powered by Internal Combustion Engines (ICEs). Electric Vehicles (EVs) are generally considered the best candidates for this transition, however, existing power grids and EV management systems are not yet ready for a large penetration of EVs, and the current opinion of the scientific community is that further research must be done in this field. The so-called Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) concept plays a relevant role in this scenario by providing the communication capabilities required by advanced control and Demand-Side Management (DSM) strategies. Following this research trend, in this paper the communication requirements for the DSM of EVs in urban environments are discussed, by focusing on the mobile communication among EVs and smart grids. A specific system architecture for the DSM of EVs moving inside urban areas is proposed and discussed in terms of the required data throughput. In addition, the use of a Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) solution—the Long-Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) technology—is proposed as a possible alternative to cellular-like solutions, by testing an experimental communication infrastructure in a real environment. The results show that the proposed LPWAN technology is capable to handle an adequate amount of information for the considered application, and that one LoRa base station is able to serve up to 438 EVs per cell, and 1408 EV charging points.
Highlights
The increasing concerns about fossil fuels depletion, global warming, and environmental pollution are strongly affecting modern transportation systems, which are progressively called for a radical shift from traditional Internal Combustion Engines (ICEs) towards greener solutions
The data transmitted by the LoRa modem have been reported in the following figures, which show the georeferenced data about the State Of Charge (SOC), the average speed, and the the following figures, which show the georeferenced data about the SOC, the average speed, and the following figures, which show the georeferenced data about the SOC, the average speed, and the distance travelled by the Electric Vehicles (EVs), as depicted in Figures 12–14, respectively
Based on the analysis of the information provided by the literature on the matter, the interaction among EVs and power grids has been discussed, by mainly focusing on the Demand-Side Management (DSM) schemes proposed for the smart charging of EVs, and on the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) concept
Summary
The increasing concerns about fossil fuels depletion, global warming, and environmental pollution are strongly affecting modern transportation systems, which are progressively called for a radical shift from traditional Internal Combustion Engines (ICEs) towards greener solutions (i.e., sustainable, decarbonized, and safe). Change [2] revealed that the total direct Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions of the transport sector represent the 14% of the global anthropogenic GHG emissions, and that road vehicles are responsible for the 72% of this share. A further issue of concern is the contribution of road vehicles to the air pollution in urban centers. Recent studies demonstrated that conventional ICEs are responsible for the emission of the 73% of total urban air pollutants, and revealed that the growth in chronic health problems in urban areas can be directly related to transportation systems [3]. Several restrictions on ICE vehicles have been proposed in European cities, such as the progressive diesel ban in Paris (entered into force since 2015), and the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) that will come into force in London starting from April 2019 [4]
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