Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The Canadian transportation sector relies heavily on oil, which accounts for almost 30% of the total carbon emissions. Concerns regarding global warming and rising gas prices are drivers for adopting the electrification of the transportation sector, which involves three modes: 1) land-based vehicles, 2) aircraft and 3) sea-going vessels. Despite many environmental and economic benefits of such electrification, the integration issues of this sector with the existing highly stressed electric grid infrastructure needs better management of the distribution system resources to avoid power outages, poor power quality and asset failure. To date, little research has focused on managing the operation of the existing distribution system resources to mitigate the aforementioned issues considering the integration of the electrified transportation sector into both the residential and the commercial sectors. The focus of my pervious successful Discovery Grant program was to address the problems of integrating plug-in electric vehicles into the residential sector. The research in the current application is focused on extending the analysis to incorporate the integration of large-scale high-power fast charging stations (LS-HPFCS) in the commercial sector, which will address the combined effect of charging in both sectors on the smart distribution system including microgrids and distributed renewable energy resources, in a holistic manner. Hence, this proposal aims to conduct a series of investigations to manage the issues resulting from the operation of the LS-HPFCS using dynamic operational models of LS-HPFCS with different configurations and topologies and using advanced time-frequency signal processing tools to analyze possible power quality disturbances. In addition, this research will develop new computationally intelligent algorithms to optimize the operation of emerging distribution system resources, particularly battery energy storage and the innovative flexible distributed generation to smooth the integration of LS-HPFCS, which will eventually lead to the transformation of the existing system into a smart distribution system. These investigations will lead to improved reliability and power quality in addition to reducing the stress on the aging grid assets leading to deferral of premature infrastructure replacement and hence cost savings. Moreover, the successful management of integrating LS-HPFCS will pave the way towards a smooth transition in integrating the other modes of transportation electrification, reducing the carbon footprint and better utilizing the grid infrastructure. The proposed research program is innovative, transformative and will provide exceptional opportunities for graduate students to bridge the gaps between theory and practice in smart grid-related areas, hence addressing the shortage in trained graduates and expertise in this field.************