On the Evaluation of Plug-in Electric Vehicle Data of a Campus Charging Network

TL;DR

This paper analyzes real-world data from a university campus PEV charging network to understand customer demand profiles, highlighting opportunities for solar integration and informing sustainable station design.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of actual PEV charging data from a university campus, offering insights for designing sustainable charging infrastructure based on real customer demand.

Findings

Most customers use charging stations to extend driving range

Peak demand correlates with solar irradiation, indicating solar integration potential

Data analysis informs future sustainable charging station design

Abstract

The mass adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) requires the deployment of public charging stations. Such facilities are expected to employ distributed generation and storage units to reduce the stress on the grid and boost sustainable transportation. While prior work has made considerable progress in deriving insights for understanding the adverse impacts of PEV chargings and how to alleviate them, a critical issue that affects the accuracy is the lack of real world PEV data. As the dynamics and pertinent design of such charging stations heavily depend on actual customer demand profile, in this paper we present and evaluate the data obtained from a $17$ node charging network equipped with Level $2$ chargers at a major North American University campus. The data is recorded for $166$ weeks starting from late $2011$. The result indicates that the majority of the customers use charging lots to extend their driving ranges. Also, the demand profile shows that there is a tremendous opportunity to employ solar generation to fuel the vehicles as there is a correlation between the peak customer demand and solar irradiation. Also, we provided a more detailed data analysis and show how to use this information in designing future sustainable charging facilities.