Optimized Electric Vehicles Wireless Charging: Applicative Models for Supporting Decision Makers

Abstract

Wireless Power Transfer is one of the most promising technologies in the private transport sector. With the large-scale deployment of electric vehicles for decarbonization policies, the number of charging stations to be deployed will increase and may not be sufficient for the service, causing network instability. The use of wireless charging in urban and highway contexts could facilitate the service by reducing the network peaks associated with DC fast charging stations. This paper guides a decision-maker interested in implementing wireless charging models in urban and highway contexts. The work proposes an optimization algorithm for each context and identifies outputs for 3 different car models with different heights above the ground (0.10 m, 0.20 m and 0.30 m). This will allow to identify 3 optimized scenarios for wireless charging for each model. A sensitivity analysis will show the percentage improvement in performance as the number of transmitters is increased. In the urban model, it will be possible to increase the energy charged per stop by up to 4.2% by varying between the minimum and maximum number of transmitters. In the highway model, it will be possible to increase the recharged energy in a 1 km section by up to 26.5% by varying the number of transmitters between the 3 optimal configurations obtained. These results can provide a quantitative guide for decision-makers wishing to implement a wireless charging system in the two contexts analyzed.