Electrification of road transport is a critical step towards establishment of a sustainable transport ecosystem. However, a major hindrance to electric mobility is the high cost and weight of the battery pack. Downsizing the battery pack will not only address these issues, but will also reduce embedded emissions due to battery manufacturing. One approach towards reducing battery pack size and still offering the user of electric vehicles similar mobility experiences as in case of conventional vehicles is to set up extensive network of charging or battery swapping stations.
Another approach is to provide the vehicle with required energy while it is on the move. However, conventional systems such as overhead line or conducting rails have several disadvantages in the urban environment. One solution that has come up in this regard in recent times is the concept of Electric Roads System (ERS), which involves dynamic wireless power transfer (DWPT) to the vehicles from power transmitters embedded in the road they are driving on. The vehicles using ERS can have a downsized battery pack to enable it run on segments without ERS.
Major advantage of the ERS are reductions in the cost of the battery pack and charging time. The vehicles also have reduced energy consumption due to reduction in mass.
In this paper, an ERS is simulated using traffic microsimulation tool Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO) with heterogenous traffic. Effect of vehicle speed on charging of battery is considered. Based on the simulation results, impacts of such a system on the traffic flow and the electric power supply system are studied. The variation of the state of charge of the battery pack of the vehicles is also studied.