Abstract

Abstract: Abstract We study duopolistic pricing by ports that are congestible, share the same overseas customers and have each a downstream, congestible transport network to a common hinterland. In the central set-up, local (country) governments care about local welfare only and decide on the capacity of the port and of the hinterland network. We obtain the following results. First, profit-maximizing ports internalize hinterland congestion in as far as it affects their customers. Second, investment in port capacity reduces prices and congestion at both ports, but increases hinterland congestion in the region where the port investment is made. Investment in a ports hinterland is likely to lead to more port congestion and higher prices for port use, and to less congestion and a lower price at the competing port. Third, the induced increase in hinterland congestion is a substantial cost of port investment that strongly reduces the direct benefits of extra port activities. Fourth, imposing congestion tolls on the hinterland road network raises both port and hinterland capacity investments. We illustrate all results numerically and discuss policy implications.

Abstract

International audience; Electric Vehicles (EV) appear as a clean transportation technology with clear environmental advantages and potential benefits for the grid, being a key element of future modern smart cities. However, autonomy of the vehicle and lack of recharging stations are barriers that need to be overcome in order to make the service reliable and broadly accepted. To tackle this problem, French GreenFeed project is working to define and implement an interoperable and universal architecture to allow EV-recharge roaming. In this work, we consider such architecture and focus on issues faced by the e-mobility operator (EMO) and identified by the GreenFeed project. The EMO, a key actor in the architecture, maintains contracts with EV users to allow EV recharge at any geographical place (recharge roaming) through agreements with charging infrastructure operators. The interest of the EMO is to schedule the recharge demands and fulfil the contracts while maximizing its revenue. We analyse different online EV recharge scheduling under different pricing models, agreed between the EV users and the EMO, to study their impact on the EMO's revenues. In this analysis, we assume recharges arriving at random times and requesting a certain amount of energy during a fixed time period. We simulate a scenario with real day-ahead hourly electricity prices over two years and different scheduling polices to illustrate the feasibility of online recharge scheduling.

Abstract

Large controllable loads, such as electric vehicles, are increasingly penetrating electricity distribution feeders. To avoid local congestion, their consumption behaviour must be steered, for which a real-time price propagated down from the transmission system does not suffice, as it does not reflect local grid conditions. To efficiently steer the charging of EVs by multiple self-interested parties, we propose an auction framework which accounts for local grid conditions, the limited flexibility of EVs, and the uncertainty inherent to small-scale networks. We formulate the EV charging problem as a job scheduling problem for self-interested aggregators, and auction network capacity"br/"for discrete time slots using sequentially-cleared auctions, which run in parallel. We simulate this auction on a local network using realistic data for EV driving behaviour and network capacity, showing this method leads to feasible allocations which are fairer in case one party is weaker than the other due to size or information asymmetry.

Abstract

Peak Hour Avoidance is a relatively new Dutch mobility management measure. To reduce congestion frequent car drivers are given a financial reward for reducing the proportion of trips that they make during peak hours on a specific motorway section. Although previous studies show that employers are not eager to support mobility management measures, employers are nevertheless an important stakeholder. They can provide their employees with alternatives such as other travel times, work locations or travel modes and encourage their use. This paper investigates the attitudes of Dutch employers towards Peak Hour Avoidance. Exploring the factors that influence these attitudes may help to fully utilise employer support. The data from 103 employers were collected through a web questionnaire. A structural equation model on the employer support for Peak Hour Avoidance was estimated. The results demonstrate that the size of the organisation and sector only have an indirect effect on the support for Peak Hour Avoidance. Results reveal that most support for Peak Hour Avoidance can be expected from organisations who feel responsible for influencing the commuting behaviour of employees, that have human resource managers with a positive attitude towards Peak Hour Avoidance, with flexible working times and that have already implemented mobility management measures. The largest contribution to PHA that can be expected from employers is providing employees with flexible working times and encouraging employees to fully utilise this option as an alternative for driving in peak hours. This would not only be beneficial for PHA but for a wide range of mobility management initiatives as well.

Abstract

The purpose of this study has been the develop of a model for designing an efficient parking pricing policy. The aim is an intelligent control and management system of parking pricing integrated with a redefinition of the circulation scheme for a limited traffic zone in the Central Business District (CBD) of Palermo. The transport demand over the entire area of the town has been studied in order to design various parking pricing scenarios with the application of an additional cost on parking inside the selected area of the CBD. This area attracts most of the private vehicular traffic and it is characterized by university faculties, schools, hospitals, offices and commercial areas. The optimal hourly toll is defined by an iterative maximization process of an objective function. This objective function is subject to the following constraint: the percentage of available parking in the various parking zones has to remain major of the 30%. In this way, the users who need to park close to their final destination can easily find parking. Otherwise it is possible to leave the private car in a “park and ride” area and taking a shuttle bus directed towards the zones of the CBD. A basic principle of this pricing policy is the re-use of revenues for two purposes: to design a shuttle bus service that connects the various “park and ride” areas to the CBD and to improve the local public transport service on the OD pairs that show high travel demand. At the same time it is necessary to eliminate the stop and go flow in cordon roads to increase the capacity and avoid congestion in these critical links. The method shows that in a very simple, and relatively fast, way is possible to get a proposal for the modification of the parking pricing scheme that makes the city center no longer stifled by private car traffic.