The BEV Smart Charging Project

Quantifying the Benefits and Constraints of Battery Electric Vehicle Smart Charging Adoption

About

This notebook is managed by Pingfan Hu, supervised by Prof John Helveston.

Project Overview

This project aims to understand BEV owners’ preferences with respect to participating in the Smart Charging programs to improve grid resilience and enable greater integration of renewable energy onto the grid. It utilizes the cbctools and logitr R package developed by Prof John Helveston. The three-year project will be performed in two research thrusts:

Thrust One: Measure and model BEV charging preferences using conjoint survey.
Thrust Two: Simulate grid performance under different SMC and V2G scenarios.

The Smart Charging programs contain both SMC and V2G:

SMC is short for “Supplier-Managed Charging”. It allows the charging stations to monitor, manage, and even restrict the charging process to optimize energy consumption.
V2G is short for “Vehicle-to-Grid”. It allows bidirectional charging, so that the vehicle can discharge a certain amount of electricity back to the grid to further optimize energy consumption by balancing supply and demand.

A previous study of Tarroja and Hittinger (2021) has proved the economic feasibility of both SMC and V2G. This project is therefore a succeeding study of it.

Project Motivation

The motivation of this study is described as below:

The adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is essential for the U.S. to transition to a low-carbon energy system. However, if BEVs are charged during peak electricity demand hours, it could negate their environmental benefits and strain the electrical grid, necessitating expensive upgrades.
SMC is a solution that aims to control the timing of BEV charging according to grid conditions. This strategy is particularly useful for BEV owners who leave their vehicles plugged in for extended periods, allowing the grid to intermittently charge the vehicles when it is most convenient for the grid.
On the other hand, V2G is to charge the electricity from the BEVs back to the grid. It is a tougher objective compared with SMC. This objective aims to decrease the amount of stationary power storage of the utility by better using the existing electricity in the BEVs.
The challenge lies in convincing BEV owners to participate in SMC and V2G programs. Concerns about privacy, the need for flexibility in their schedules, and lack of adequate compensation can deter participation.
For our program to succeed, there’s a need for a better understanding of social, behavioral, and economic factors influencing BEV owners’ willingness to participate. Different regions, based on their BEV adoption and renewable energy levels, will have varying requirements for such programs.

In summary, the widespread adoption of BEVs is crucial for a sustainable future, but charging them during peak hours can have drawbacks. The Smart Charging program could solve this issue, yet its success hinges on understanding and addressing BEV owners’ concerns and varying regional needs.

References

Tarroja, Brian, and Eric Hittinger. 2021. “The Value of Consumer Acceptance of Controlled Electric Vehicle Charging in a Decarbonizing Grid: The Case of California.” Energy 229 (August): 120691. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2021.120691.

--- title: "The BEV Smart Charging Project" subtitle: "Quantifying the Benefits and Constraints of Battery Electric Vehicle Smart Charging Adoption" bibliography: references.bib --- ## About This notebook is managed by [Pingfan Hu](https://pingfanhu.com), supervised by [Prof John Helveston](https://www.jhelvy.com). <a href="https://jhelvy.github.io/smartcharging/" class="btn btn-primary" role="button" target="_blank"> Project Showcase </a> ## Project Overview This project aims to understand BEV owners' preferences with respect to participating in the Smart Charging programs to improve grid resilience and enable greater integration of renewable energy onto the grid. It utilizes the [`cbctools`](https://jhelvy.github.io/cbcTools/) and [`logitr`](https://jhelvy.github.io/logitr/) R package developed by Prof John Helveston. The three-year project will be performed in two research thrusts: 1. Thrust One: Measure and model BEV charging preferences using conjoint survey. 2. Thrust Two: Simulate grid performance under different SMC and V2G scenarios. The Smart Charging programs contain both SMC and V2G: 1. **SMC** is short for "Supplier-Managed Charging". It allows the charging stations to monitor, manage, and even restrict the charging process to optimize energy consumption. 2. **V2G** is short for "Vehicle-to-Grid". It allows bidirectional charging, so that the vehicle can discharge a certain amount of electricity back to the grid to further optimize energy consumption by balancing supply and demand. A previous study of @tarroja2021 has proved the economic feasibility of both SMC and V2G. This project is therefore a succeeding study of it. ## Project Motivation The motivation of this study is described as below: 1. The adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is essential for the U.S. to transition to a low-carbon energy system. However, if BEVs are charged during peak electricity demand hours, it could negate their environmental benefits and strain the electrical grid, necessitating expensive upgrades. 2. SMC is a solution that aims to control the timing of BEV charging according to grid conditions. This strategy is particularly useful for BEV owners who leave their vehicles plugged in for extended periods, allowing the grid to intermittently charge the vehicles when it is most convenient for the grid. 3. On the other hand, V2G is to charge the electricity from the BEVs back to the grid. It is a tougher objective compared with SMC. This objective aims to decrease the amount of stationary power storage of the utility by better using the existing electricity in the BEVs. 4. The challenge lies in convincing BEV owners to participate in SMC and V2G programs. Concerns about privacy, the need for flexibility in their schedules, and lack of adequate compensation can deter participation. 5. For our program to succeed, there's a need for a better understanding of social, behavioral, and economic factors influencing BEV owners' willingness to participate. Different regions, based on their BEV adoption and renewable energy levels, will have varying requirements for such programs. In summary, the widespread adoption of BEVs is crucial for a sustainable future, but charging them during peak hours can have drawbacks. The Smart Charging program could solve this issue, yet its success hinges on understanding and addressing BEV owners' concerns and varying regional needs.