Techno-economic analysis of retrofitting existing fuel stations with DC fast chargers along with solar PV and energy storage with load flow analysis
Abstract: The increasing number of electric vehicles (EVs) in the transport sector has rendered the conventional fuel-based vehicles obsolete along with the fuel filling stations. With the growth in EVs, there has been an increase in the public charging infrastructure with fast charging equipment being used to charge the EVs in least possible time and also address the issue of ‘range anxiety’ among the EV owners. Many countries like South Korea and Germany has seen policies being implemented to install fast chargers for EVs in existing fuel filling stations. This study aims conduct a techno-economic feasibility to analyse the potential of implementing Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) with fast charging capacity into existing fuel filling stations. The potential of using solar photovoltaic system (PV) and battery storage systems (BESS) to reduce the load from the grid is also explored. Scenarios are developed considering different configurations of the EVSE, PV and BESS and an in-depth economic analysis is conducted to analyse the economic feasibility of the configurations. The impact on the electricity grid is also analysed in this thesis by conducting a load flow analysis on the CIGRE Low voltage network for Europe using Python.The proposed design enables selection of techno-economically feasible configurations of EVSE, BESS and PV. The results of the design are explained with the UK as a case study. It is observed that the configurations with 3 EVSE, BESS and 8 hours and the configuration with 3 EVSE, 1 BESS and 1 PV system for 8 hours of operation are economically viable. The proposed design shows that though the connection cost is the dominant factor affecting the feasibility, use of BESS with or without PV can reduce the connection cost by almost 90% depending on the number of BESS. Load flow analysis is conducted for the different configurations of EVSE, BESS and PV on the CIGRE LV network on Pandapower in Python. The results indicate that the existing network needs to be reinforced to facilitate the connection of EV fast chargers into the grid. Upgrading the network cables and increasing the slack voltage to a value of 1.05 or 1.1 Volts per unit, are the two strategies that have been suggested in this study to prevent any undervoltage that may occur as a result of connecting the EVSE to the electricity grid. The simulations conducted for the two strategies highlight that by implementing these strategies into the electricity grid network, the undervoltage issues in the transmission network can be mitigated.
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