This work uses a probabilistic method to combine two unique datasets of real world electric vehicle charging profiles and residential smart meter load demand. The data was used to study the impact of the uptake of Electric Vehicles (EVs) on electricity distribution networks. Two real networks representing an urban and rural area, and a generic network representative of a heavily loaded UK distribution network were used. The findings show that distribution networks are not a homogeneous group with a variation of capabilities to accommodate EVs and there is a greater capability than previous studies have suggested. Consideration of the spatial and temporal diversity of EV charging demand has been demonstrated to reduce the estimated impacts on the distribution networks. It is suggested that distribution network operators could collaborate with new market players, such as charging infrastructure operators, to support the roll out of an extensive charging infrastructure in a way that makes the network more robust; create more opportunities for demand side management; and reduce planning uncertainties associated with the stochastic nature of EV charging demand
This paper quantifies the recharging behaviour of a sample of electric vehicle (EV) drivers and evaluates the impact of current policy in the north east of England on EV driver recharging demand profiles. An analysis of 31,765 EV trips and 7704 EV recharging events, constituting 23,805h of recharging, were recorded from in-vehicle loggers as part of the Switch EV trials is presented. Altogether 12 private users, 21 organisation individuals and 32 organisation pool vehicles were tracked over two successive six month trial periods. It was found that recharging profiles varied between the different user types and locations. Private users peak demand was in the evening at home recharging points. Organisation individual vehicles were recharged primarily upon arrival at work. Organisation pool users recharged at work and public recharging points throughout the working day. It is recommended that pay-as-you-go recharging be implemented at all public recharging locations, and smart meters be used to delay recharging at home and work locations until after 23:00h to reduce peak demand on local power grids and reduce carbon emissions associated with EV recharging
1 September 2013 in IET Intelligent Transport Systems
This study develops a more accurate range prediction for electric vehicles (EVs) resulting in a routing system that could extend the driving range of EVs through calculating the minimum energy route to a destination, based on topography and traffic conditions of the road network. Energy expenditure of EVs under different conditions is derived using high‐resolution real‐world data from the SwitchEV trial. The SwitchEV trial has recorded the second‐by‐second driving events of 44 all‐electric vehicles covering a distance of over 400 000 miles across the North East of England, between March 2010 and May 2013. Linear models are used to determine the energy expenditure equations and Dijkstra's graph search algorithm is used to find the route minimising energy consumption. The results from this study are being used to better inform the decisions of the smart navigation and eco‐driving assist systems in EVs, thus improving the intelligent transport systems provisions for EV drivers. The outputs of the research are twofold: providing more accurate estimations of available range and supporting drivers’ optimisation of energy consumption and as a result extending their driving range. Both outputs could help mitigate range anxiety and make EVs a more attractive proposition to potential customers.
The technique to forecast available parking spaces (APSs) is the foundation theory of parking guidance information systems (PGISs). This study utilises data collected on parking availability at several off‐street parking garages in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, to investigate the changing characteristics of APS. Using these baseline data the research reported here aims to build up a short‐term APS forecasting model and applies the wavelet neural network (WNN) method to the PGIS problem. After selecting optimal preferences, including training set size, delay time and embedding dimension, the APS short‐term forecasting model based on WNN is built and tested using the real‐world dataset. By experimental tests conducted using the same dataset, WNN's prediction performance is compared with the largest Lyapunov exponents (LEs) method in the aspects of accuracy, efficiency and robustness. It is found that WNN prevails through a more efficient structure and employs, barely half of the computational cost compared to the largest LEs method, which could be significant if applied to real‐time operation. Moreover, WNN enjoys a more accurate performance, for its prediction average mean square error (MSE) is 6.4 ± 3.1 (in a parking building with 492 parking lots) for workdays and 8.5 ± 6.2 for weekends, compared to the MSE of largest LEs method, 18.7 and 29.0, respectively.
12 January 2018 in Transportmetrica A: Transport Science
This study focuses on the reconfiguration of bus services in an urban area with a newly constructed rail system. A hub-and-spoke network framework is introduced for the multimodal transit system. The rail services are taken as the backbone, and the bus services (main bus lines and feeder bus lines) are reconfigured to better integrate with rail services forming the core of a Mobility as a Service (MaaS). A cluster-based approach is used for selecting hubs from rail stations. Bus stops are taken as non-hub nodes. Main bus lines are designed based on a heuristic line generation approach and feeder bus lines are developed by solving a travelling salesman problem. A bi-level programming model is proposed to determine frequencies of each mode and addressed by the artificial bee colony algorithm. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is illustrated by numerical examples and applied to the Mandl's benchmark compared with existing studies.