Method Including Power Grid Model and Route Simulation to Aid Planning and Operation of an Electric Bus Fleet

A fleet of electric buses can be a challenging load for power grids. This opens interesting opportunities for dialogue between power system design and electric bus route and concept development. A suite of cooperating tools was created to study this interaction, combining a power-grid-connection cost model, a route design and drawing tool, and a tool to simulate electric buses driving along the designed routes. The results obtained from simulations correspond well to measured data. The tools presented can be used for planning the bus operation and for estimating investment and operating costs of a proposed system design. Future work will combine the separate tools into a joint simulation platform with a convenient user interface.