Cornell team develops framework for incorporating wireless charging road system into real-time electricity market
25 July 2022
Researchers at Cornell have developed a coupled transportation–power system framework for incorporating a wireless charging road system into the real-time electricity market. In addition, they propose an optimization-based control strategy to manage the energy storage system in a cost-efficient manner. Their paper is published in the journal Applied Energy.
Wireless charging roads equipped with energy storage systems are promising electric vehicle charging solutions by virtue of their strong advantages in time saving and reduced pressure on the existing power infrastructure. Integration of wireless charging roads into the existing electricity market and efficient management of the corresponding energy storage system are crucial for successful implementation of the wireless charging road systems.
—Shi and Gao (2022)
The simulation study demonstrates that efficient control of the energy storage system not only reduces the energy costs of the entire wireless charging road system but also alleviates the pressure produced by the wireless charging load on the existing power grid. In two numerical examples, the energy costs are reduced by 2.61% and 15.34%, respectively.
Time average of maximum and time average of standard deviation of locational marginal prices are reduced by 10.65% and 69.33% for the first numerical example and 5.11% and 34.73% for the second numerical example.
The proposed framework consists of three major modules: the hybrid traffic assignment, the extended DCOPF, and the controller.
The hybrid traffic assignment calculates the traffic flow given specific trips across a road network composed of wireless charging lanes and normal traffic lanes.
The extended direct current optimal power flow (DCOPF) determines the optimal electric energy flows between the generation resources, load centers and wireless charging roads in the given power grid.
The control approach seeks to minimize the energy costs of wireless charging roads by efficiently managing the output of the energy storage system.
Our control strategy is computationally efficient and requires no forecasts of the system states, making it appealing to practical applications.
—Jie Shi, lead author
Resources
Jie Shi, H. Oliver Gao (2022) “Efficient energy management of wireless charging roads with energy storage for coupled transportation–power systems,” Applied Energy, Volume 323 doi: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.119619
So where the heck are they proposing to install the batteries or whatever they want to use?
No way to evaluate this without loads more information.
Posted by: Davemart | 25 July 2022 at 02:39 AM
I have dug out some more on this:
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/04/research-paves-way-wireless-charging-electric-vehicles
' In the system Afridi’s team has designed, two insulated metal plates on the ground, connected to a power line through a matching network and a high-frequency inverter, create oscillating electric fields that attract and repel charges in a pair of matching metal plates attached to the underside of a vehicle. This drives a high-frequency current through a circuit on the vehicle, which rectifies it. The rectified current then charges the battery.
One enormous advantage of electric fields is they have a more linear, directed nature compared with the looping arcs of magnetic fields. Hence, they do not require flux-guiding materials, such as ferrite, and can operate at much higher frequencies. The main challenge is that electric fields generated by readily available voltages are quite weak. Afridi’s team compensates by boosting the voltage and operating the system at very high frequencies to achieve large levels of power transfer.
“The latest magnetic field systems developed for electric vehicle charging operate at 85 kilohertz. The electric field system that we are developing in our lab works at 13.56 megahertz. So it’s running almost 200 times faster, which partly compensates for the five orders of magnitude deficit it needs to overcome,” Afridi said. “It also turns out that you can deal with a much higher voltage more easily than a higher current, which helps further bridge the difference in power transfer capability.”
The team’s ferrite-free system promises to be smaller, lighter, less expensive and easier to embed in the roadway. However, the system is not easy to develop.'
Interesting, but the bluest of blue sky research.
And I still have no idea where and how they are proposing to install the needed storage.
Posted by: Davemart | 25 July 2022 at 03:34 AM
No batteries needed.
Information from Khurram Afridi articles:
“The team’s most notable innovation is the active variable reactance (AVR) rectifier, which allows a vehicle to get full power when passing over the charging plates even if the pairs of plates – which would be laid out roughly every few meters on the road – are not completely aligned. “
https://www.nanowerk.com/news2/green/newsid=57875.php
A more detailed scientific article with description in Figure 2.
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielaam/6687316/8957650/8779693-aam.pdf
Posted by: Gryf | 25 July 2022 at 08:27 AM
Stellantis has developed an”Inductive Roadbed”, though Afridi’s concept looks better.
https://www.stellantis.com/en/news/press-releases/2022/june/arena-del-futuro-demonstrates-capability-of-dynamic-inductive-recharging-technology-for-electric-vehicles
Posted by: Gryf | 25 July 2022 at 08:32 AM
Hi Gryf.
Thanks for the links.
Maybe I am just being dim, a quality for which, without wishing to be unduly boastful, I have considerable innate ability in, but I still can't figure out where the storage is.
During the average day, you have a morning and an evening peak in traffic, often outside the hours or maximal sunlight if you are figuring on mainly using solar.
Where is the needed fuel reserve to smooth things out?
Posted by: Davemart | 25 July 2022 at 09:22 AM
Khurram Afridi Design is a Capacitive Wireless Power Transfer System which is better than the Inductive System like Stellantis has developed.
This should be a better description of a Capacitive Wireless Power Transfer System:
https://tec.ieee.org/newsletter/march-2018/recent-developments-in-capacitive-wireless-power-transfer
Posted by: Gryf | 25 July 2022 at 11:38 AM
Also, remember the power comes from the”Grid”. This is just the electrified roadway.
Posted by: Gryf | 25 July 2022 at 11:40 AM
Yeah, I can see the reliance on 'The Grid'
What I don't see if it is hoped to use renewables is how that works without some significant storage.
There is a lot of talk in their links about KW and nothing much about KWh.
I'm not saying it is impossible to power, but it is non-trivial, even if you used fossil fuels or nuclear.
Posted by: Davemart | 25 July 2022 at 11:59 AM
It would be however a darn sight easier to power this than provide thumping great batteries in every car.
The design metrics are significantly eased.
Assuming that you used batteries, and there are a lot of other possible alternatives, weight and volume would be far less important, and there would be no need for fast charging.
Posted by: Davemart | 25 July 2022 at 12:02 PM
This gives some hope that electrified transport may. eventually, become lightweight and properly ecological in economic use of materials, minimal tire wear and so on, instead of the massively subsidised wannabe high speed electric Hummers that have masqueraded as 'ecological'.
Posted by: Davemart | 25 July 2022 at 12:14 PM
This is similar to an electric rail system without the catenary or third rail.
The renewables must be in the grid - wind, solar, geothermal, and nuclear.
Yes you would still need batteries in the vehicle to get to the electrified roadway, however they could be much smaller and would not require charging for any long periods.
Posted by: Gryf | 25 July 2022 at 12:16 PM
Gryf:
It would need buffering with a few hours worth of draw, just like a petrol station for hourly changes in demand, with far fewer vehicles on the road at night and so on.
How much seasonal load balancing would be needed is far more open to question, as that would depend on lots of variables like the source of power etc.
Of course, way easier to do in places with low seasonal variability and lots of sunshine.
Maybe even solar roofs over the roads could do much of it?
I don't fancy notions of solar embedded in the roadways.
Posted by: Davemart | 25 July 2022 at 01:05 PM
Davemart;
Worked as a System Engineer at a large USA Electric Utility for almost 8 years.
Systems Consultant for Japanese Electric Utility. Worked at software company that developed systems for Electric Load Management.
Understand very well all of these requirements.
Posted by: Gryf | 25 July 2022 at 01:28 PM
Here is a French project which sought to build solar into roads:
https://bigthink.com/the-present/france-solar-road/
Merde encore!
Posted by: Davemart | 25 July 2022 at 01:29 PM
I'd fancy panels overhead like this more:
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/09/05/european-trio-creating-solar-highway-system/
But it might be simpler to use agricultural land, now that agrivoltaics means that effectively solar and agriculture can live comfortably together with minimal impact on land use.
Posted by: Davemart | 25 July 2022 at 01:44 PM
@Gryf:
' Understand very well all of these requirements.'
I am wholly convinced of that!
Which is why I use every opportunity to prise out info from you for the benefit of the rest of us.
The pros and cons are not always entirely obvious to the non-expert, and can be a matter of dispute even between those who are, but at least the issues and discussion boundaries can be clarified.
Posted by: Davemart | 25 July 2022 at 01:48 PM
Although solar canopies over roads, or maybe in sound barriers, have not got anything directly to do with wireless charging, it is perhaps an obvious step to look at the possibility in this context.
The Swiss seem to be the main folk looking at it:
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/can-solar-panels-on-highways-accelerate-the-supply-of-green-energy-/47121004
Posted by: Davemart | 25 July 2022 at 02:07 PM
@Davemart:
Interesting Links on Solar Roadways.
Already acquired public lands can be used to help power the roads.
Posted by: Gryf | 25 July 2022 at 02:20 PM
I used to think that for northerly densely populated countries, land use considerations meant that only nuclear could do the job.
Although I still would like to see SMRs as adding more flexibility, wind and especially solar have now improved so much especially agrivoltaics that I no longer think they can't do the job.
No doubt you are up to speed on these, but here are a couple of links to summarise:
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-07-vertical-pv-power-gas-imports.html
I think that in some locations bifacial vertical solar, and other agrivoltaic systems, can usefully be combined with air cooling, for very high total electrical plus thermal efficiency, utilisable in European district heating systems, perhaps, although certainly commercial rooftops would be initially easier.
Here is Sunovate:
https://thefifthestate.com.au/energy-lead/business-energy-lead/wa-startup-sunovate-is-blowing-air-into-the-emerging-pv-thermal-market/
And especially perhaps for Germany, with its urgent need to replace Russian NG and considerable areas suitable for land based turbines not in areas of very high wind speed, perhaps this new design for wind turbine reaching far greater heights and hence producing more power might be a goer:
https://www.greencarcongress.com/2022/06/20220624-bendix.html
Basically I have come to the conclusion that even where the winters are long and there is not much sun, renewables can do a far better job than I had thought, without excessive land use.
And if Europe can pretty much work, for the US here is an interactive map showing that with the exception of Washington DC just about every state can hit a very high percentage of total demand locally just with solar, without even considering agrivoltaics etc:
https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/solar/interactive-map-shows-how-states-can-meet-50-of-energy-demand-with-solar/#gref
Posted by: Davemart | 25 July 2022 at 03:11 PM