Abstract

The mass adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) requires the deployment of public charging stations. Such facilities are expected to employ distributed generation and storage units to reduce the stress on the grid and boost sustainable transportation. While prior work has made considerable progress in deriving insights for understanding the adverse impacts of PEV chargings and how to alleviate them, a critical issue that affects the accuracy is the lack of real world PEV data. As the dynamics and pertinent design of such charging stations heavily depend on actual customer demand profile, in this paper we present and evaluate the data obtained from a $17$ node charging network equipped with Level $2$ chargers at a major North American University campus. The data is recorded for $166$ weeks starting from late $2011$. The result indicates that the majority of the customers use charging lots to extend their driving ranges. Also, the demand profile shows that there is a tremendous opportunity to employ solar generation to fuel the vehicles as there is a correlation between the peak customer demand and solar irradiation. Also, we provided a more detailed data analysis and show how to use this information in designing future sustainable charging facilities. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

Electromobility is one of the main solutions for tackling current challenges such as climate change or the scarcity of fossil resources [1]. Currently, there are large uncertainties regarding future production volumes of electric vehicles with forecast for 2025 varying between 4 % and 38% [2]–[4]. This demand volatility combined with rising importance of supply chain partners requires a fast adaptability of production volumes within the supply chain leading to a higher need of supply chain flexibility [1]. In this paper we present a method to optimize the contractual volumes between two supply chain partners coordinated by a quantity flexibility contract with fixed flexibility. Specifically, we examine whether a quantity flexibility contract fulfils its coordinating role in settings of changeable production systems. We validate our method with an example from the production of electrified automotive powertrains. The results show that we can further improve both costs and supply chain flexibility but that the coordinating role of the quantity flexibility contract is limited.