Modeling shared autonomous electric vehicles: Potential for transport and power grid integration

Abstract

One-way car-sharing systems are becoming increasingly popular, and the introduction of autonomous vehicles could make these systems even more widespread. Shared Autonomous Electric Vehicles (SAEVs) could also allow for more controllable charging compared to private electric vehicles, allowing large scale demand response and providing essential ancillary services to the electric grid. In this work, we develop a simulation methodology for evaluating a SAEV system interacting with passengers and charging at designated charging stations using a heuristic-based charging strategy. The influence of fleet size is studied in terms of transport service quality and break-even prices for the system. We test the potential of the system to supply operating reserve by formulating an optimization problem for the optimal deployment of vehicles during a grid operator request. The results of the simulations for the case study of Tokyo show that a fleet of SAEVs would only need to be about 10%-14% of a fleet of private cars providing a comparable level of transport service, with low break-even prices. Moreover, we show that the

The Synergies of Shared Autonomous Electric Vehicles with Renewable Energy in a Virtual Power Plant and Microgrid

“…The fleet size was selected at 1.4 vehicles per average trip per hour (TPH). This ratio was found in previous work to be a good compromise between minimizing waiting times and operating costs of the system [33]. Assuming an average of two trips per private vehicle per day, this suggests that autonomous vehicles would replace traditional vehicles with a proportion of about 1:8.6, in accordance with previous studies [2,44].…”

“…This area includes about 300 nodes (origin and destination points) shown in Figure 3. More information about the survey extraction methodology and determination of the trip origin/destination distributions (block 7 in Figure 1) can be found in [33]. …”

“…The time interval length for the simulations presented was set to 1 h and the tortuosity factor of roads was set to 1.5 [33]. The fleet size was selected at 1.4 vehicles per average trip per hour (TPH).…”

Distribution System Services Provided by Electric Vehicles: Recent Status, Challenges, and Future Prospects

“…Other emerging technologies, such as connected and autonomous vehicles, are being incorporated in smart cities as a way to deal with traffic and transportation issues. In a future transportation electrification scenario, the combination of these two technologies may bring potential benefits, but also challenges, in several aspects [143], [144]. Autonomous vehicles and EVs are complementary from a technology point of view [145]- [147].…”

“…Autonomous and connected EVs (ACEVs) may have the capability to manage many functionalities, such as SOC, the charging power, and the charging/discharging time, without deteriorating user comfort [144]. To this aim, ACEVs need to make use of communication tools, that allow them to find charging facilities.…”