Smart Charging Management for Shared Autonomous Electric Vehicle Fleet: A Puget Sound Case Study

Increasingly, experts are forecasting the future of transportation to be shared, autonomous and electric. As shared autonomous electric vehicle (SAEV) fleets roll out to the market, the electricity consumed by the fleet will have significant impacts on energy demand and will drive variation in energy cost and reliability, especially if the charging is unmanaged. This research proposes a smart charging (SC) framework to identify potential benefits of active SAEV charging management that strategically shifts SAEV electricity demand away from high-priced peak hours. Time of use (TOU) and real time pricing (RTP) electricity scenarios are tested using an agent-based SAEV simulation model to study 1) the impact of battery capacity and charging infrastructure type on the SAEV fleet performance and operational costs under SC management; 2) the cost reduction potential of SC considering energy price fluctuation, uncertainty, and seasonal variation; and 3) the charging infrastructure requirements for SC operation. A case study from the Puget Sound region demonstrates the proposed SC algorithm using trip patterns from the regional travel demand model and regional energy prices. Results suggest that in the absence of electricity price signals, SAEV charging demand is likely to peak the evening, when regional electricity use patterns already indicate high demand. Under SC management, EVs with larger battery sizes are more responsive to low-electricity cost charging opportunities, and have greater potential to reduce total energy related costs (electricity plus charging infrastructure) for a SAEV fleet, especially under RTP structure.

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADC70 Standing Committee on Transportation Energy.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Transportation Research Board

    ,    
  • Authors:
    • Zhang, Tony Z
    • Chen, T Donna
  • Conference:
  • Date: 2019

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Figures; References;
  • Pagination: 5p

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01698011
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: 19-02107
  • Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
  • Created Date: Mar 1 2019 3:51PM