Overnight Charging Mechanism of Battery Electric Buses for a Transit Network in Smart Cities

Battery electric buses (BEBs) are known for being eco-friendly transportation in smart cities. They are cost-effective compared to their diesel counterpart if BEBs are charged ef-ficiently. There are two main charging approaches for BEBs, namely, off-service (overnight) and on-route (opportunity) charging. The overnight electricity rate is typically lower than the daytime rate. Consequently, overnight charging is considered the most affordable approach to meet the daily energy needs of the electrified transit network. This paper introduces a new intelligent overnight charging mechanism-i.e, Priority Charging Mechanism (PCM)-that charges BEBs simultaneously using the optimum number of chargers to minimize infrastructure costs. The model is evaluated using the actual transit network data of the city of Thunder Bay.