Grid congestion is one of the most serious bottlenecks for the energy transition, especially in the Netherlands. For this, we need creative solutions. One of these solutions is to use the already-existing, high-power, city-wide electrical infrastructure of public transport grids to integrate renewable, energy storage, and third-party users such as EV chargers and relieve the AC grid from new loads and sources.
This is a wide research area that sits at the intersection between power systems and power electronics. There is now a dedicated person at TU Delft for this (parttime assistant prof, parttime program manager energy research and innovation at GVB) to research this topic and create internship opportunities for students (and supervise them).
Research directions are for:
1. Sizing and placement of renewable energy sources (AC and DC side)
2. Management of battery assets: Think of topics with battery LCA, second life batteries, peaks having, etc.
3. Comparison, sizing, and assessment of energy storage systems ( onboard and offboard, new or second-life, etc.)
4. Sizing of the third-party users that can be charged from transport grids (EV chargers, bus chargers, ferries, zero-emission construction sites, etc.)
5. Design and redesign of traction substation and the challenging converters to connect these elements to the transport grid.
6. Creating the charging strategy for buses, ferries, etc.
And many more topics to brainstorm!
Interested students please check out the research work of Ibrahim Diab and contact him directly at i.diab@tudelft.nl for internship/thesis opportunities.
