Electrification of Transportation Vehicles

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By Vigna K Ramachandaramurthy, Kang Miao Tan, Jia Ying Yong

In the modern age, energy consumers have high expectations for energy supply reliability. Many advanced measures are required to ensure that the power grid is ready for the large integration of Electric Vehicles (EVs). A proper architecture design for an EV charging system is crucial to ensure a reliable power supply for EV demands. Healthy interaction between the EV and power system can greatly upgrade the reliability and sustainability of the power grid, as well as provide ancillary services to the power grid. This technology is denoted as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G). In the early development stage of V2G, a small-scale framework shall be easy and efficient enough to stimulate a wider adoption of the technology. This also serves as an educational stage in getting the society ready to accept this new concept. When the technology matures, these small-scale V2G building-blocks can be combined and interact via aggregators for smart grid applications. Literature has demonstrated the flexibility of the EV charger when interacting at various scales of the power grid such as smart home, power distribution grid and microgrid.

By Shamsul Aizam Zulkifli

Since the last decade, the number of electric vehicles (EVs) has significantly increased. This is due to the new advanced technology especially in electric motor design and also the government policies to reduce the amount of combustion engine produced carbon footprint into the atmosphere. As a result, more and more countries around the world such as United Kingdom, has taken the initiative to reduce the dependency on the usage of internal combustion engine vehicles to t combat this problem. Due to the reasons mentioned earlier, EV’s will soon be the main focus in transportation changes. Moreover, most of the EV aspects such as the charging/discharging of the battery, battery energy management for driving the electric motor or vice versa, the concepts of Vehicle to Grid (V2G) or Grid to Vehicle (G2V) are well studied by the researchers around the world. However, less focus has been given to the issues related to charging stations.

By Jairo Quirós-Tortós, Luis (Nando) Ochoa

In the next decade or so, hundreds of thousands of new electric vehicles (EVs)—from plug-in hybrid to fully electric—will hit the roads around the world, adding to the current EV fleet of more than 3 million. To understand the challenges and opportunities that come with the widespread adoption of EVs, particularly passenger light-duty vehicles, many distribution network operators (DNOs) and stakeholders in different countries have carried out EV trials.

By Claude Ziad El-Bayeh

Over the last decade, Electric Vehicles (EVs) have drawn attention of researchers for many reasons. First, EVs require electric energy to supply their traction motors. Second, EVs can be used as battery storage systems, in which they can store or supply energy from/to the grid. Third, thanks to advanced technology of the converters, EVs can provide ancillary services for electric distribution networks (DN) through many applications such as, voltage and frequency regulations, active and reactive power flow compensation, harmonic distortion reduction, energy supply/demand management and integration of renewable energy sources. In response to the evolving needs of the system operators, new businesses were emerged such as EV parking lots, EV charging stations, where the fleet operators use EVs to provide different services and support the grid.


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