
Electric Vehicles | Can We Avoid Overloading in Networks?
As the climate crisis, energy prices, and concerns about sustainability force the transportation industry, which causes serious greenhouse gas emissions, to radically change, electric vehicle sales are increasing day by day. However, the increase in the number of electric vehicles also brings a question. Will charging electric vehicles overload the electric network? The answer to this question – as with many other mobility challenges – depends on planning and technology. Let’s define the problem first.
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These vehicles, powered by electric motors, promise to be more environmentally friendly than existing internal combustion engines based on fossil fuels. This means fewer polluting emissions from transport, which today accounts for about a quarter of all emissions. Dramatic changes don’t happen in a day or even a year. The transition from combustion-engined vehicles to greener alternatives takes time, giving the electric network time to adapt to changes such as coping with multiple fast chargers.
In addition, energy efficiency continues to improve in other areas, for example, electricity consumption in the construction and residential sectors is expected to decrease in the coming years. Energy utilities are also constantly developing new solutions to respond to electricity demand.
Why Electric Vehicles Won’t Cause Network Overload ?
First of all, millions of electric cars do not need to be plugged in at the same time. Second, electric vehicles do not need to be charged during peak hours. The most efficient way is to charge when consumption is normally low and production is high. Electricity distribution companies can optimize energy prices for electric vehicles accordingly.
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Smart Charging Stations Are Of Great Importance
With smart charging, the timing of charging events can be controlled. Smart charging provides solutions to automatically optimize charging events according to the demand of local electricity.
In addition, with smart charging, the charging power can be reduced automatically when necessary in case of momentary tension in the local network. When multiple cars are connected to the same building, neighborhood, or utility area, the chargers can be clustered so that the aggregated amount of charging power does not exceed network tolerance limits.
In addition, with smart charging, the charging power can be reduced automatically when necessary in case of momentary tension in the local network. When multiple cars are connected to the same building, neighborhood, or utility area, the chargers can be clustered so that the aggregated amount of charging power does not exceed network tolerance limits.
In addition, electric vehicles have batteries that can be charged at charging stations and used to power them during use. However, studies have shown that drivers park their vehicles 95% of the time. As a matter of fact, electric vehicles are very effective as energy storage devices as the batteries can be charged and discharged as needed. Interestingly, batteries become more efficient for bidirectional charging when only charged and used, even with smart one-way charging. At this point, electric vehicles’ smart charging and V2G (Vehicle to Grid) technologies come into play. Thus, intelligently controlled EV(Electric Vehicles) s can sell energy to the grid during peak load while connected to the charger. Likewise, with smart charging, charging can be done during off-peak hours.