Impact of controlled charging of an electrical vehicle fleet on business efficiency

Abstract

Unmanaged charging of a commercial electric vehicle fleet at the grid connection point of an office building might cause higher grid usage costs and thereby high specific electricity costs due to an increase of power demand when charging with high rates. Through the year the charging load will vary due to dependence of consumption and range of the electric vehicle to the weather. Therefore the effect of unmanaged charging on the load curve is studied by means of simulation of charging with varying charging rates and differentiated energy consumption. Shifting load by controlled charging offers potential to relieve the electricity grid, but also to increase the business efficiency of the fleet operation. For the latter three mechanisms are considered in optimized charging. Limiting rising peak loads, increasing own consumption of PV generated energy, which feeds into the supply network of the office building as well as varying electricity tariffs are simulated, applying different scenarios.