Optimal design of electric mobility services for a Local Energy Community

Abstract

The integration of electric mobility with energy systems based on renewable sources represents one of the main pillars of sustainable cities and, in particular, of Local Energy Communities. This leads to reduce the environmental impact in urban areas and contributes to the implementation of the microgrid concept. Electric mobility services mainly include the use of electric buses, car sharing, bike sharing, and e-scooters. The aforesaid services fit well with university campuses where the transportation demand is considerable and sustainability is a challenging target. In this framework, the present paper aims to propose a methodology to optimally define and design electric services for a Local Energy Community which takes energy from a microgrid based on the exploitation of renewable energy sources and storage systems. The study considers the application of the proposed methodology, based on a mixed-integer linear programming model, to a university campus in Italy. Starting from the analysis of the results of a survey created to identify the needs of end-users, the model determines the optimal configuration of the electric mobility system made of shuttles, cars and bikes as well as charging points. The optimization model also investigates the opportunity of upgrading the set of renewable energy and storage technologies present in the microgrid of the campus to which the electric mobility infrastructures will be connected. In the paper some different scenarios are analyzed in order to compare the proposed electric mobility services from the technical and economic point of view, referring to the considered case study.