Assessing the ability of roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) canopies to support electric vehicle (EV) charging in cities

Kelly, N J and Allison, J and Flett, G and Hand, J W (2020) Assessing the ability of roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) canopies to support electric vehicle (EV) charging in cities. In: uSIM2020 Building to Buildings – Urban and Community Energy Modelling, 2020-11-12 - 2020-11-12, Heriot Watt University.

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Abstract

This paper assesses the ability of roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) canopies and a battery to support public, electric vehicle (EV) charging at car-park-based charging hubs. A proposed EV charging hub in central Glasgow was modelled using a combination of tools including the ESP-r simulation package, a Matlab load flow model and an EV charging tool developed specifically for this paper. ESP-r has an integrated PV model, and this was used to determine the time-varying power output of the PV canopy, which was rated at 200kW. Performance was simulated over a calendar year, using a Glasgow test reference climate. The EV charging tool, which was calibrated using Transport Scotland field data, was used to determine the corresponding time-varying demand from EV charging. Various scenarios where examined, including different sizes of vehicle fleets serviced by the charging hub (10, 20 and 50), different battery sizes (0-500kWh) and two different battery operating strategies. The simulation results indicated that the peak power output of the PV array was 110kW and the annual yield was approximately 110 MWh. Without a battery, only between 35-58% of PV generated electricity was used locally, with the percentage of local consumption falling as the number of vehicles serviced increased. Adding a battery improved on-site consumption of PV generated electricity, and reduced the peak power drawn from the local grid. However the peak exported power to the grid was insensitive to battery size. It was determined that a battery size of 8-10 kWh per vehicle serviced gave the best return in terms of increasing consumption of locally produced power and reducing peak power demand.

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