Battery electric vehicle energy demand in urban energy system modeling: A stochastic analysis of added flexibility for home charging and battery swapping stations

The successive upsurge in the penetration rate of battery electric vehicles (BEV) in the transport sector stresses electricity grids. Concurrently, batteries in BEVs add flexibility, while the reintroduction of battery swapping stations challenges home charging with regards to added flexibility. To address research gaps regarding the role of BEV charging systems in urban decarbonization pathways, this paper introduces an innovative modeling approach that reflects the implications of home charging and battery swapping stations in urban environments and accounts for the stochasticity of vehicle use.

The developed method is demonstrated using a case study that comprises a sample residential area equipped with rooftop PV. The comparison of home charging and battery swapping stations shows that both approaches allow significant increases of self-consumption of locally provided electricity over conventional opportunistic home charging, with battery swapping stations evincing the highest increase in flexibility. This increase in added flexibility might, however, not justify a system-wide introduction of battery swapping stations for BEVs, as required surplus batteries and industry-wide standardization entail added efforts over home charging.

Policy recommendations derived by this work support building regulations regarding the installation of charging stations and the utilization of PV rooftop potentials considering the anticipated market penetration of BEVs and the possibility to share electricity within local energy hubs.