Electric vehicle community charging hubs in multi-unit dwellings: Scheduling and techno-economic assessment
Ruolin Zhang, Noah Horesh, Eleftheria Kontou, Yan Zhou
Abstract
Democratizing access to charging infrastructure is a prerequisite for equitable electric vehicle (EV) adoption and use. Residential EV charging is the most prevalent and convenient option. However, multi-unit dwelling (MUD) residents have limited access to home charging, leading to higher operating costs and less flexibility. We introduce the concept of community charging hubs for shared charger use at MUDs. Our model minimizes the charging hub’s total waiting time. We measure the charging hub’s performance and evaluate the levelized cost of charging through a techno-economic assessment in Chicago, IL, New York City, NY, and Los Angeles, CA. We uncover trade-offs between the charging hub’s performance and its levelized cost of charging. Installing direct current fast charging stations costs more than adding level-2 stations but significantly reduces waiting times. The cost and performance metrics of small, medium, and large charging hubs and their average power profiles are presented for various hub configurations.