Optimizing Charging Infrastructure and Schedules for Electrified Heavy-Duty Fleets: A Grid Resilience Approach

Vehicle electrification, particularly for heavy-duty vehicles like school buses, offers substantial benefits, including energy savings, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and improved student health outcomes. However, adopting electric heavy-duty vehicles presents additional challenges compared to conventional vehicles. Key issues include the high initial cost and recharging constraints, particularly the limitations of existing charging infrastructure. As a result, the fleet electrification of heavy-duty buses and logistic trucks often requires the development of dedicated depot charging infrastructure. Moreover, when constructing such infrastructure, it is essential to consider not only the installation and management costs but also grid resilience. This study addresses the requirements for charging infrastructure and plans charging strategies from a grid resilience perspective to support a sustainable electric vehicle fleet, using real operational data from school bus fleets. For this, this paper proposes a two-phase approach for optimizing charging infrastructure and schedule management. The first phase determines the optimal number of chargers needed for sustainable electric bus fleet management. The second phase refines the charging schedule, aiming to reduce peak power demand and enhance grid resilience. Experimental results indicate that approximately half the fleet size in chargers is required. By comparing scenarios of simultaneous charging with distributed charging combined with peak shaving, we found that peak power demand can be reduced by 10% to nearly 50%. These findings offer insights for policymakers, grid operators, and fleet managers in enhancing grid resilience and effectively managing electrified fleets.