Smart Charging Infrastructure for Sustainable Electric Mobility in Kuwait

 Funded by KFAS

 Dr. Mohamed Trabelsi

Dec 2023

 Award Amount:

24000 KWD

PI: Dr. Mohamed Trabelsi

Start date: Dec 2023

End date: Dec 2026

Status: Ongoing

Research Theme:

·         Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics

·         Nanotechnology and Renewable Energies

Impact (SDG):

Good health and well-being (SDG3), Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG7), Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG11), Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG12), Climate Action (SDG13)

Figure 4 Graphical Abstract - Smart Charging Infrastructure for Sustainable Electric Mobility in Kuwait

Collaborators:

• Prof. Mohamed Trabelsi, Lead PI, Kuwait College of Science and Technology, Kuwait
• Dr. Hani Vahedi, Co-PI, TU Delft, Netherlands
• Dr. Shady Khalil, Consultant, University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

Description:

The high CO2 emitter status of Kuwait may affect future investment activities. Recently, Kuwait has given more interest to zero-emission transportation means and intends to create a wide network of electric vehicles (EVs) including cars, buses, and trucks. The adoption of EVs by public and private entities relies on having safe, reliable, and geographically dispersed charging infrastructures at different locations in the country. Smart charging is one of the best solutions that meets the modern trend of power grid utilization by ensuring the reliability and the availability of the grid for the continuous charging process. The smart charging infrastructure should be designed to meet the specific needs and preferences of the EVs and grid. Of course, effective communication and coordination is necessary for the implementation of such a scheme. A multitude of tools, such as smart metering, information, and communication technology (ICT) devices, vehicles, battery, and distributed energy sources (DESs) including renewable and storage resources should be coordinated with the EV owner and the grid, to ensure a successful implementation of the smart charging process. Essentially, EVs, drivers, charging stations, grid, and DESs generate massive amounts of data, such as battery state of charge (SOC) and state of health (SOH), daily trip information, driver charging habits, density of EVs per charging service, power levels provided by DES, and state of the grid. The major requirement for smart charging is fast monitoring and real-time analysis of the data coming from the aggregators and the grid. Faster analytics are needed to enhance grid reliability and robustness, optimize the power management, vehicle to grid (V2G) operation and ensure fast electricity pricing calculations.
The success of future smart charging infrastructure depends critically on the effective use of massive amounts of data from the EV charging environment and making decisions in real-time.

Outcome publications: 

1. M. Benmiloud, K. Rayane, A. Benalia and M. Trabelsi, "A Novel Hybrid Control Strategy based on Limit Cycle Stabilization for Flying Capacitors Multilevel Inverters," IECON 2024 - 50th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Chicago, IL, USA, 2024, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/IECON55916.2024.10905174.
2. H. E. A. Abbou et al., "Enhanced Stability of Microgrids based on Advanced Virtual Rotor Control and Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries," IECON 2024 - 50th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Chicago, IL, USA, 2024, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/IECON55916.2024.10905447.
3.  M. K. B. Boumegouas, K. Kouzi, M. Trabelsi, A. Iqbal, M. Birame and M. B. Shadmand, "Robust Synergetic Observer based Fault-Tolerant Control for Electric Vehicle Applications," IECON 2024 - 50th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Chicago, IL, USA, 2024, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/IECON55916.2024.10905497.
4. A. Kermansaravi et al., "Reinforcement Learning Based Control of Grid-Connected PUC5 Inverter," IECON 2024 - 50th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Chicago, IL, USA, 2024, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/IECON55916.2024.10905177 
5. M. K. Billal Boumegouas, K. Kouzi, M. Trabelsi, M. Bougrine, B. Bendjedia and A. Iqbal, "Comparative Performance Analysis of 21700-Type Cylindrical and Pouch Nickel Manganese Cobalt Battery Cells for Electric Vehicle Applications," 2024 IEEE 21st International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference (PEMC), Pilsen, Czech Republic, 2024, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/PEMC61721.2024.10726420.
6. H. E. A. Abbou, M. E. Benzoubir, A. Hachemi, A. Delassi, S. Arif and M. Trabelsi, "Electric Vehicle-based Virtual Inertia and Damping for Enhanced Frequency Response in Low-Inertia Microgrids," 2024 4th International Conference on Smart Grid and Renewable Energy (SGRE), Doha, Qatar, 2024, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/SGRE59715.2024.10428797.