ELECTRIC MOBILITY CHARGING SOLUTIONS
Published December 2013 by Urban Resilience S.L. www.urbanresilience.eu
CONTENTS
1. Current Challenges 2. Project details 3. Multiple services 3.1. Public Fast Charge 3.2. Electric Carsharing 3.3. E-Taxi docking 3.4. Bus Battery Exchange 3.5. Urban Strategy Roadmap 3.6. Smart Grid & Energy Management 4. Versatility & Space saving 5. Safety 6. The ideal choice
1. Current challenges Despite many efforts to widely introduce and promote electric driving, the electric car revolution is still not a success. Only fund-based demonstrations and subsidised testers have been deployed in response to the desperate global call for a solid infrastructure to support electric mobility. All these initiatives, mainly based on ITC applications or standalone charging stations, are not financially sustainable and are dealing only with a small part of the paradigm shift that is required for general acceptance, and therefore, they cannot be considered as realistic solutions yet.
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A comprehensive approach encompassing mobility, energy, and urban planning is essential
One of the major hurdles in the development of a proper charging infrastructure is the lack of foresight of the strategic future cooperation between a vast variety of public and private stakeholders, many of which were not previously connected before and now must cooperate and commit to this transformational process. A comprehensive approach encompassing mobility, energy, and urban planning is essential for effective decision making with regard to planning an electric vehicle infrastructure since all these systems will be closely interlinked.
2. Project details
+ SUMOSU Stations propose a basic network of stations
that provide publicly accessible charging infrastructure for the whole e-mobility system of a city, looking after the needs of users ranging from e-taxis to city electric buses, car-sharing fleets and private users. Moreover, these stations have also been designed to become key infrastructures to enable an efficient interaction with the grid, increase its safety and reliability and favour locally-based energy distribution and autonomy.
As any steady-state infrastructure, SUMOSU Stations are simple in terms of building components, but powerful in relation to the impacts of policy and technology choices they foster. They respond to the most important challenges that sustainable urban planning is facing at the moment and can be a turning point for alternative energy developments and integrated systems of public transport. As a distinctive value opposed to most current systems, SUMOSU Stations offer an open solution allowing different actors to incorporate at any point and thus, avoiding absolute market power. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Total space used each station : 120 m2 Containing: - 10 city-car parking spaces and charge for Carshare fleets - 4 front spaces for all-size cars of public fast charge - Convenience store - Water and air pump Number of cars per station:
14 spaces
Input Power
220 kw, 3 Phase AC (Other inputs available)
Input Current
(depends on placement of station)
Output Current
Modulated DC
Storage &consumption capacity
800kw/day
Information and specifications subject to change
+SUMOSU Stations
offer an open solution allowing different actors to incorporate at any point and thus, avoiding absolute market power.
3. Multiple Services AUTOMATED CAR PARK&CHARGE Rotating automated car park for car sharing fleets of city cars only, with simulated slow charge provided.
PUBLIC FAST CHARGE Plug-in fast charge for all brands and size of cars requiring an occasional emergency charge.
TAXI DOCKING Docking area & fast charge provided for city electric taxis, without size restrictions.
CONVENIENCE STORE Small convenience store , cafĂŠ or space for vending machines to offer users the chance of drinking a cup of coffee while their charge is in process.
BATTERY EXCHANGE Offered exclusively to city bus or public fleets with a closed route easy to predict and with intensive use.
A Total Infrastructure PUBLIC FAST CHARGE BUS BATTERY EXCHANGE
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ELECTRIC CARSHARE
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URBAN STRATEGY ROADMAP
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E-TAXI DOCKING
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SMART GRID & ENERGY MANAGEMENT
Each station is an automated docking space for an electric car share service of a fleet of 10 electric city cars. By using the same lead-in wire —so no extra space, cost and maintenance is required — SUMOSU Stations also provide fast charge to e-taxis and private users. Within the same facilities, a battery swapping service is also offered only to public bus lines. Absolute safety is guaranteed to the user as access is controlled to areas where dangerous voltages are present and all services are provided by authorized staff.
3.1. Public Fast Charge ALL VEHICLES ACCEPTED One of the main advantage of SUMOSU Stations over the popular approach of DC fast charging station is the use of a single converter for multiple slots. Conventional fast charging stations contain a AC/DC converter per charging point and without any storage capacity while our solution is based on the use of a single AC/DC converter for multiple charging slots leading to a common DC bus architecture as described in the graphic. In that case, the complexity of the power converters, and also the cost can be minimized.
MICROGRID ARCHITECTURE Microgrids can be defined as a power system composed of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) that can operate as an electrical or thermal generator, a storage system or as a load, to provide maximum electrical efficiency with minimum incidence to loads in the local power grid. Since the elements that compose our project can be consideredas DER, the whole system can be considered as a specific case of a microgrid with controllable loads (electric vehicles),storage devices and grid interconnection. Generation assets like renewable resources are not included in the first stage. However, SUMOSU Stations provide a convenient way to integrate microgenerators in the future.
3.2. Electric Car-Sharing ACCESS VS. OWNERSHIP Car sharing is a type of car rental. What makes it different from traditional car rental is that it is designed to be convenient for people who want to rent cars for short periods of times (a few hours) and only pay for their usage (you are billed based on how long you have a car and the distance travelled). Another difference with traditional car rental that makes car sharing more practical for people who don't own a car is that it allows you to access a car at any hour, not just business hours. And because the cars are spread around town in any SUMOSU Stations, chances are there's one such parking close to where you live, making it easy to walk to it. It is different from Car Pooling, too. Car Pooling is the shared use of a private car. It happens when several people share the same journey in the private car of one of them. Car Sharing allows the individual usage of a vehicle from a fleet of cars is jointly-owned by the users.
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Carsharing contributes to sustainable transport because it is a less car intensive means of urban transport, and according to The Economist, carsharing can reduce car ownership at an estimated rate of one rental car replacing 15 owned vehicles.
In essence, carsharing converts the high fixed costs of owning a car (purchase price, insurance, taxes, and maintenance) into smaller units—the per-hour or per-mile price of driving a car. Carsharing allows access to travel by car without the burden of owning it. But because users pay a high marginal cost for every hour or mile they drive, carsharing also gives members a strong incentive to drive less. In this way, carsharing can both increase mobility for people who might otherwise be carless and also reduce auto travel among members who previously owned their own car. This reduction in automobile travel carries a host of benefits to society, from reducing local traffic congestion to slowing global climate change.
Planning for Shared Cars Research reports, best and worst practices, and city case studies have shown that, if not accurately planned, sharing schemes can result in failure. Some of the key factors required in managing a successful carshare system are: Maintenance costs: Returning the vehicle Carshaing should replace the use of a private car, so a car is collected in the nearest station and it must always be returned to the same location after its use. On the contrary, “drive-and-park” schemes, allowing to park in any parking space, have proved to generate a high maintenance cost, as carshare companies are taking care of the car reallocation, management of parking fees and user penalisation, and are based on unpredictable behaviours. Control and space take up: On-street parking Carsharing systems with on- street parking involveextra costs due to the high exposure to risk and vandalism. Providing closed facilities ensures proctection from these factors as well as a personalised customer service for correct delivery of vehicles and to guarantee the best conditions on pick up. Steady-state tool: Avoiding privatisation Any country’s public infrastructure should have positive effects on a country’s productive performance. Therefore, this infrastructure cannot be privately provided as private agents would be unable to offer perfect competition of all firms involved (car manufacturers, carshare companies, etc)
Steady Implementation STEP 1: SHORT TERM A basic network of stations is deployed based on a simple grid pattern. Only the minimum initial investment is required and, at the same time, range anxiety is alleviated as every user is guaranteed a fast charge spot within a 5km radius maximum. STEP 2: MEDIUM TERM The network can grow steadily and with no risky investments, as every new station will be built only after a minimum number of carshare membership requests is reached. This method provides the necessary critical mass to ensure the financial viability of the new facilities. STEP 3: LONG TERM Following this system, the whole infrastructure of a city can be supplied with technical and economic feasibility. Each of these steady-state stations could be run by a different company, although all public charge points would be compatible with all cars using a fast-charging method.
Charge for Car-sharing fleet Charging system for car sharing fleets within the automated car park is different from public fast charge. Frequent fast chargers can damage the battery pack over time, and should only be used as an emergency method of getting you back on the road. The correct way to use these vehicles is a 220-volt 8-hour overnight charge, or a 110-volt 20- hour day of charge. The cost of replacing a battery pack damaged by constant repetetive "fast" charging, would financially equal one of these vehicles, and is not covered by any manufacturer's warranty yet, In order to provide a constant supply of fresh-charged car sharing vehicles, SUMOSU Stations applies a simulated slow charge to car batteries. Still using the same three-phase electric power supply of the station, a timer-based charge offers the same benefits of a slow charge and it is workhorse that keeps you ready with 10 charging bays. Each of these bays has an advanced charge circuit with built in timer. When the timer finishes, it will continue trickle charging the batteries to keep them topped off. The charge is operated by a qualified station attendant, who will perform other services such as vehicle preparation to ensure vehicle is ready for customer pick-up, check vehicle status, and assist carsharing members as well as private car users.
3.3. E- Taxi Docking A REDUCED OPERATIONAL COST Taxis alone can be responsible for 20% of pollution in some city centers despite representing only a few percent of the vehicles. This is because of their intensive inner-city use. But this reason also makes taxi fleets more suitable than private cars for the adoption of new electric technologies. The advantages of electric cars as taxis are immediately obvious: low fuel cost is the first, while less noise, vibration, and a low center of gravity make a comfortable ride an easy second. Low maintenance cost is another point for electric taxis. They also optimise car usage. A single taxi fulfils the transportation needs of 10 to 20 people per day, and generally drives many more
kilometres in its lifetime than a private car, hence reducing car production needs. Therefore, taxis contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of a car’s total life cycle both per person and per kilometre. The use of taxis lowers citizens’ dependence on their private car. Reducing the number of private car journeys, as a result of good taxi services, reduces the need for a second family car and, by the same token, the need for scarce and costly parking places in inner cities. As taxi companies also have a marketing interest in offering green alternatives to their customers, they are increasingly willing to become carbon neutral or operate a fully electric fleet.
3.4. Bus Battery Swapping Bus and public service fleets are professionally managed with little variety of models in one fleet and often predictable routes and major funding for both infrastructure and purchase of innovative vehicles. Electric bus batteries are big and heavy but, if an exchange station is available, batteries can be half the size and therefore, release more weight for better driveability and more space for passengers. Swapping discharged batteries with charged ones can be a nightmare with private cars because the position and fixing methods of the batteries in the wide variety of electric cars available is not standardised and there is no significant progress in that direction.
But the opposite is true with a bus or taxi fleet. The vehicles can be identical and a network of SUMOSU Stations will be strategically placed counting with bus routes. Battery swapping makes great sense here. Concepts that are impracticable with private cars become a serious proposition. And despite of the high up front cost in due course, there is a payback when used intensively. Overmore, when bus batteries reach the end of their lives in an automotive capacity, only 30 percent or less of their life would have been used. Rather than throw these “spent� batteries, SUMOSU Stations plans to reuse them as energy storage units.
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Smart is about intelligence, but mainly about how you apply it. Smart says something about the extent to which all rational requirements and wishes have been incorporated into the design. It says something about the effectiveness, about the integrated approach, the simplicity of the solution and the durability. A smart solution is a solution which is so apparently simple that you wonder how you would otherwise have ever solved it. We believe in a knowledge-driven approach.
3.5. Urban Strategy Roadmap FROM CONGESTION TO RESILIENCE Cities can go beyond responding to carsharing companies’ requests for on-street parking spaces and proactively plan the location of these spaces. SUMOSU Stations place shared cars throughout the city so that most of the population lives within a short walk of at least one carsharing location. Because each shared car has been estimated to replace up to 17 private vehicles, dedicating on-street spaces to SUMOSU Stations can ultimately increase the availability of on-street free space and significantly reduce the city’s carbon footprint. Adopting local policies to support the use of car sharing and other public transport will encourage the steady tranformation of cities.
For instance, removing the equivalent number of free on-street car park spaces for every SUMOSU Station that is built will give extra value in two ways. First, the reduction of congestion due to drivers lñooking for a free parking spot. Second, it will optimise the use of city-operated fee-paying parking facilities. Some drivers may oppose as this makes privately-owned cars a more expensive alternative. But reducing the on-street parking availablility to privately owned cars might even encourage more people to become carsharing members, creating a positive cycle that will further increase the benefits of carsharing. Each on-street space dedicated to a SUMOSU Station can benefit many people, including those who do not carshare.
ASPHALT FOR CARS OR A PLACE FOR PEOPLE?
3.6. Smart Grid & Energy Management DISTRIBUTED NETWORK SUMOSU Stations benefit from their strategical distribution throughout a city to improve not only mobility, but also energy and city architecture by providing a DISTRIBUTED PATTERN. This will imply a revolutionary change in urban infrastructure systems and their governance, as many of the current centralised model features are becoming obsolete and will therefore naturally adapt to a distributed approach.
DISTRIBUTED ENERGY Imagine being able to solve network congestion and instability with no need to build extra facilities. Or being able to integrate distributed renewable power smoothly and efficiently without wasting energy and give an immedate use to the exceeding energy produced during peak hours. SUMOSU Stations have the technology and the necessary volume of energy demand to give grid operators that capability.
DISTRIBUTED MOBILITY Distributed mobility systems, although its widespread use in transport logistics is still not commonly applied to urban passenger mobility. However, a number of passenger transport activities with growing popularity fit the Distributed Network concept. Services such as lift-sharing, taxi-sharing services and bicycle share schemes have become popular in recent years and are a clear exaple of these new patterns. SUMOSU Stations proposal involves an electric carsharing as a key service that will contribute to the de-centralisation of mobility, but also energy and city planning. This service for individual travellers entail behaviour change or information services, such as campaigns to promote more diverse travel choices and schemes for personalised travel plans.
Sample Case // BARCELONA Central locations in the city of Barcelona have the most urban mobility options because private and public transport facilities are present. However, this does not mean that mobility is easier since central areas are congested and many commuters need to go through the central area even if their destination is not the city centre itself. In locations outside the central core, a share of the population have a very expensive and limited access to public transportation and therefore, a very high rate of automobile ownership.
DISTRIBUTED COMMUNITIES As a consequence of the de-centrealisation in energy and mobility, cities will devolve greater powers to councils and neighbourhoods and give local businesses. A change in shopping habits. Goods and services have become more regionalised and culturally specific. Much of urban design has shifted to a collaborative model with local participatory budgets. Where this works, everything is very tailored to the desires of the participants, for example with car-free family areas, or bicycle lanes for everyday use. Locally owned businesses build strong communities by sustaining vibrant town centers, linking neighbors in a web of economic and social relationships, and contributing to local causes. These compact, walkable town centers are in turn essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, congestion and pollution . ENHANCE PUBLIC SPACE We want to create public spaces for people to meet and socialize. We believe that public spaces that are good for people are places where people are safe from traffic and crime. Where people feel comfortable walking, standing and sitting. Where everyone feel invited and spaces that are attractive for people to spend time.
STRENGTHEN LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPEMENT We believe that people are the city’s largest resource. People are attracted to people – And therefore we believe that public spaces that are good for people are good for business as well. Public spaces that accommodate basic social functions for people to meet and invest time are also the spaces where people choose to invest their money.
INTEGRATED APPROACH TO TRANSPORTATION A convenient and reliable public transport can be achieved by integrating the existing network with complementary systems of electric carshare program as well as other sustainable transport modes (bicycles, electric taxi, carpooling,etc.) Car sharing should be integrated with other transport modes allowing travelers to combine a variety of modes into one journey, with a single smartcard providing access to all modes.
+SUMOSU
Stations are a very interesting model in order to strengthen the holistic and integrated take on mobility needed to make our cities more accessible and livable for all.
4. Versatility & Space Saving MODULAR STRUCTURE All SUMOSU Stations are made to standard measurements and as such they provide modular elements that can be combined into different positions. This simplifies costs, design and planning for worldwide replicability as it is very easy to modify the struture to suit every landscape. Possibilities range from full construction aboveground to partially or fully underground, frontal or lateral entry and exit and vertical or horizontal battery exchange system.
partially underground
aboveground construction
AUTOMATED STRUCTURE Designed to minimize the area and volume required for parking cars. SUMOSU Stations provide parking for a carsharing fleet of 10 city cars on two levels to maximize the number of parking spaces while minimizing land usage. They use a mechanical system to transport cars in order to eliminate much of the space wasted in manoeuvre and access lanes.With land at a premium in our increasingly congested cities, this space-saving solution promises the same amount of parking offered in conventional car parks in 67% of the land area.
5. Safety
SECURITY Fast charge requires high voltages and connecting an electric vehicle without any precaution and leave connections can therefore be dangerous for people and property. SUMOSU Stations’s facilities are appropriatelly protected as access is controlled to areas where dangerous voltages are present and service is provided by an authorized staff so citizens don’t need to come in contact with these devices.
VANDALISM Plugs, cables and sockets are kept away from general public access and stations protected against damage, theft or vandalism. Most cities have not addressed these issues or prepared for these issues and that leaves people at serious risk. SUMOSU Stations have been planned and developed to offer effective and complete safety measures for the user.
RESISTANCE Many on-street charging points become an obstacle for our drivers. Our equipment is stable and fully protected from possible collisions or other street accidents. Being an automated parking system, minor damages to the facility such as scrapes and dents are also eliminated. PROTECTION AGAINST WEATHER Designed to protect and isolate components against extreme weather conditions such as rain, snow or heat waves. The charging system allows to adapt charging times that suit different temperatures.
6. The ideal choice for governments AN IMMEDIATE SOLUTION These multi-service stations provide an opportunity for immediate implementation without risky investments nor public funding, as their sound business model entails a steady expansion based exclusively on public demand. SUMOSU Stations are also strategic to overcome the “chicken and egg� effect in the e-mobility early adopter phase: they provide both the initial infrastructure for a decent network coverage as well as the required critical mass of demand from the first day. The provision of public fast charge will curb range anxiety of private users, but the prime target are vehicles of extensive use, such as delivery vans, e-taxis or local buses. Our solution is based on a technology transfer model, allowing the system to be locally developed in every region. This choice will reinforce the local economic dynamism of every country at the same time that it will foster the rapid replication of the scheme globally. There is an urgent need for national governments and local authorities to take ownership of the e-mobility shift, get actively involved in initiatives with a holistic approach and commit to solutions that contemplate replicability and resilience from the very first stages, like SUMOSU Stations.
URBAN RESILIENCE S.L. C/ Agricultura 45, Nau 3 08980 Sant Feliu de Llobregat Barcelona - SPAIN www.urbanresilience.eu info@urbanresilience.eu
C/ Agricultura 45, Nau 3
08980 Sant Feliu de Llobregat www.urbanresilience.eu
Barcelona - SPAIN