Optimizing electric grids and charging infrastructure for mass electric vehicles penetration

Big data analytics and artifificial Intelligence to support electric vehicle grid readyness

Canada has an ambitious program to lower GHG emissions in all economic sectors to help meet its environmental targets. As transportation is one of the main GHG contributors, electrification can help the sector move to lower emission alternatives. Mass transportation electrification, however, is a new research field where there is a lack of knowledge on the impact that large electric vehicle (EV) fleets will have on the transmission and distribution electricity grids, and on the required charging infrastructure.

Project objectives

CanmetENERGY in collaboration with academia and private industry partners is applying AI and BDA techniques to large field data sets to analyze techno-economic factors, environmental considerations and drivers’ social behavior to predict and forecast their cumulative impact on the charging infrastructure, future grid extensions and utilities generation capacities.

Expected results

The project will provide tools and knowledge to utility planners, policy makers, university researchers and consultants including:

Models and databases for making sound business and operational decisions;
Insights on current and future electricity use;
Insights on charging, discharging and driving behaviour patterns; and
Valuable information to help electricity distribution companies to optimize their existing distribution grids to accept large EVs penetration.