Modeling the Impact of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure on Regional Energy Systems: Fields of Action for an Improved e-Mobility Integration

Since e-Mobility is on the rise worldwide, large charging infrastructure networks are required to satisfy the upcoming charging demand. Planning these networks not only involves different objectives from grid operators, drivers and Charging Station (CS) operators alike but it also underlies spatial and temporal uncertainties of the upcoming charging demand. Here, we aim at showing these uncertainties and assess different levers to enable the integration of e-Mobility. Therefore, we introduce an Agent-based model assessing regional charging demand and infrastructure networks with the interactions between charging infrastructure and electric vehicles. A global sensitivity analysis is applied to derive general guidelines for integrating e-Mobility effectively within a region by considering the grid impact, the economic viability and the Service Quality of the deployed Charging Infrastructure (SQCI). We show that an improved macro-economic framework should enable infrastructure investments across different types of locations such as public, highway and work to utilize cross-locational charging peak reduction effects. Since the height of the residential charging peak depends up to 18% on public charger availability, supporting public charging infrastructure investments especially in highly utilized power grid regions is recommended.