Colloquia

Samenvatting

Grid congestion is one of the leading causes of stagnation in the energy transition. Especially in western countries, grid congestion prevents companies from electrifying and growing their businesses. Therefore, innovative and flexible solutions have to be utilized to allow electrification. For the electrification of transportation, traction network coupled (TNC) EV charging systems can provide a solution by taking the available power from a traction network. However, these new systems face barriers that prevent them from developing, being implemented and scaling up.

In this research, the barriers to the niche development of TNC EV charging systems are identified for six European cases by analyzing the available literature. This resulted in the identification of 13 key barriers. A mitigation strategy for each barrier was developed and after combining these strategies the niche development plan was created. 

In addition, this research also creates a model that mitigates the system size uncertainty barrier, a key barrier faced in the DC-Ehub case. The model takes the location, available power, available space, costs of the equipment and the number of chargers into account to estimate the size of the DC-Ehub components at a selected location in the center of Amsterdam. The developed model shows that the size of the system components depends on the available power and the time of the year. 

As a result, this research recommends the focus on addressing the technological barriers using testing during the first stage of niche development. During the second stage of niche development, this research recommends addressing social barriers related to the organizational development through collaboration and vision development. In the third stage of niche development this research recommends mitigating social and regulatory barriers related to the market development using engagement with regulatory bodies and end users. Further research can build upon this research by conducting surveys with residents of cities with traction networks, developing business cases for these systems or further developing the model by implementing the intermediate braking and acceleration of trams and metros.