Increasing charging station availability through peer-to-peer reservation markets

Abstract

A key condition for the continued proliferation of electric vehicles (EV) is the availability of EV charging infrastructure. While the expansion of the public network is progressing slowly, the number of private installations of charging stations is growing rapidly. In combination with a rooftop photovoltaic system (PV), private wallboxes provide inexpensive EV charging while simultaneously increasing the level of self-consumption. However, individual charging demand is limited and surplus energy has to be fed into the grid at unfavorable prices, which in addition leads to feed-in peaks that stress the electrical infrastructure. In this work, we hence propose the creation of a public marketplace for private charging capacity. Through this marketplace the availability of charging stations is improved, feed-in peaks in the grid are diminished, and an additional, more profitable revenue stream for PV-owners is created while charging prices are reduced at the same time. We validate the proposition by approximating the market size and estimating the capacity utilization based on real data from a geographically coherent example region.