When is the best time to charge my electric vehicles? Does my grid connection still offer room to expand my electric fleet? And is it smart to invest in additional charging stations? TNO's new Charge Planning Tool provides answers to these and other questions. With this innovation, the research institute hopes to smooth the faltering energy transition in logistics.
Companies looking to electrify their transport fleets run into all kinds of practical problems. Perhaps the most important is grid congestion, which often prevents companies from getting a larger grid connection. That means they cannot charge their vehicles all at once. "Shippers and carriers must therefore factor charging time into their transport planning, which must be robust above all else. A complex challenge for which there was no solution in existing planning software until now," explains Jan-Willem Sangers, business developer sustainable vehicles at TNO.
The research institute has therefore developed a separate charge planning tool. This Charge Planning Tool (CPT) not only calculates which vehicle should be connected to which charging station at which time, but also takes into account dynamic factors such as battery consumption during trips, possible schedule delays and the fact that vehicles cannot all charge at the same time.
Live interaction with vehicles
Sengers: "The CPT directly contributes to smoothing the energy transition and achieving climate goals in logistics. The tool supports charging schedule optimisation for a non-homogeneous EV fleet with multiple charging options and fewer chargers than vehicles. At the same time, the tool takes into account charger-vehicle compatibility and grid constraints."
To estimate energy consumption as accurately as possible, the CPT receives real-time data from vehicles on the road. That data includes actual measured consumption and information about the route driven, which serves as input for a digital twin of the vehicle. This allows the tool and thus the planner to accurately predict when the vehicle will arrive and what the charge level will be.
Total cost of ownership
Developed by TNO together with partners within the Green Transport Delta Recovery Project, the tool takes logistics planning as a starting point and then uses advanced algorithms to determine optimal charging planning for all electric vehicles. This tool can generate a charging schedule for hundreds of vehicles across multiple chargers within minutes.
"For logistics parties, it is essential that all trips can be driven without delay or unexpected downtime due to a flat battery," Sangers explains. "This tool takes your connection into account and optimises according to feasibility and robustness of logistics planning. In addition - within the safe margins of reliability - the tool also optimises on total cost of ownership (TCO), taking into account energy prices, maintenance costs and battery life. This can yield significant savings, especially for larger fleets."
Expanding charging capacity
Entrepreneurs can also use the CPT for strategic decisions around expanding their charging capacity. They can use it to calculate how many electric vehicles can be added to still ensure robust planning with the current connection. But also: how can I make optimal use of an industrial battery at my distribution centre? Or: what is the effect on my charging planning and costs if I invest in additional chargers?
Sengers stresses that there are no commercial parties with such a solution on the market yet. "TNO's ultimate goal is not to market the tool independently as a commercial product, but to make the underlying knowledge and algorithms as widely available as possible."
