Transmuting battery-powered buses: State-of-charge scheduling cooperative with battery and charger capacity optimization

Abstract

Transitioning toward non-polluted public transportation systems is crucial for sustainability. Although declining battery costs have led to a greater utilization of battery-powered electric buses (BEBs), challenges persist owing to the high cost of chargers and battery energy limitations, which require efficient solutions. Therefore, this study proposed a novel offline state-of-charge scheduling method that focuses on optimizing battery and charger capacities. To make this study applicable to any city, a precise bus dynamic model was developed, and all evaluations were conducted using data commonly available in the cities. To validate the optimization, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to represent the effects of the factors involved. Moreover, to investigate the differences between the utility service and depot owner perspectives, the city’s and synthetic electricity tariffs were employed for scheduling, which differ in covering the city’s daily load profile valleys. This measure is crucial when the BEB demand is not considered in generation.