Electrical infrastructure design methodology of dynamic and static charging for heavy and light duty electric vehicles

Full electrification of the transport sector is a necessity to combat climate change and a pressing societal issue: climate agreements require a fuel shift of all the modes of transport, but while uptake of passenger electric vehicles is increasing, long haul trucks rely almost completely on fossil fuels. Providing highways with proper charging infrastructure for future electric mobility demand is a problem that is not fully investigated in literature: in fact, previous work has not addressed grid planning and infrastructure design for both passenger vehicles and trucks on highways. In this work, the authors develop a methodology to design the electrical infrastructure that supplies static and dynamic charging for both modes of transport. An algorithm is developed that selects substations for the partial electrification of a highway and, finally, the design of the electrical infrastructure to be implemented is produced and described, assessing conductors and substations sizing, in order to respect voltage regulations. The system topology of a real highway (E18 in Norway) and its traffic demand is analyzed, together with medium-voltage substations present in the area.

Keywords: electric vehicles; electric trucks; heavy duty vehicles; catenary charging; fast charging stations; inductive charging; grid planning; highway electrification