Demonstration of an Advanced Power Distribution and Grid Integration System for EV Recharging

Lead Proponent

University of British Columbia, Clean Energy Research Centre

Project Background

This project demonstrated and evaluated infrastructure architecture capable of high-performance Electric Vehicle (EV) charging incorporating EV chargers with building management load utilization systems.

There were four components to this project:

• Power was delivered using a renewable energy micro-grid capable of being integrated into the existing electrical grid.
• A parkade was converted into a renewable energy asset to supply and store energy for EV charging.
• The complete energy system was modelled.
• Twenty-five EVs were monitored for energy demand, storage and fleet utilization.

Results

This project incorporated energy assets including renewable energy, battery storage, renewable hydrogen production, V2G chargers and an energy management system to demonstrate an advanced power and integration system.The integrated system was able to demonstrate that the coordination of energy assets can balance local grid demand loads and reduce system wide energy costs.

Benefits to Canada

This project has improved the deployment strategies for electric vehicles and has opened new opportunities for charging and refueling that can be applied by other universities and municipalities.

Next Steps

A digital twin of the demonstration test bed will be simulated to integrate transportation routes, processes and related energy requirements for a public transit fleet serving the UBC campus. This will facilitate the development of models to estimate and validate sustainable fuel switching scenarios for a transit fleet.