Retrofitting Existing Charging Stations for Light Mobility: Enhancing Infrastructure to Support Sustainable Transportation

As the demand for environmentally friendly transportation grows, the electrification of Light Electric Vehicles (LEVs) such as electric bicycles, scooters, and motorcycles is gaining interest. The development of a robust charging infrastructure is critical to the widespread adoption of these vehicles. The coordinate charging of LEVs is critical in reducing the strain on the distribution grid and ensuring its reliability, facilitating a sustainable and seamless transition to a greener transportation system. Retrofitting existing charging stations designed only for charging purposes, on the other hand, presents a unique set of challenges. The purpose of this scientific paper is to investigate the various aspects of retrofitting existing charging stations of LEVs to accommodate the features of coordinate charging. The proposed approach was validated using as case study the e-bike charging infrastructure, Bicimia, of the city of Brescia, Italy. This charging infrastructure is currently uncontrolled and/or unsupervised. The proposed approach has proven to be valid and effective in retrofitting existing charging stations while keeping the retrofitting intervention cost-effective, by using low-cost electronic equipment. Using the proposed system, the charging profile of a 550 Wh Li- Ion battery of a e-commercial bike could be monitored. From the experimental set-up was estimated as the entire charge time was approximately 11 hours.