Simulation-based Planning of Depots for Electric Bus Fleets Considering Operations and Charging Management

This paper presents a methodology that addresses the challenges of designing a depot for electric vehicle fleets. The wide variety of possible solutions are structured using a morphological matrix. A modular simulation and planning tool is introduced which takes technical and operational aspects into account. The tool can be used to determine the effects of depot layouts and processes. Different from most existing works, the charging process is integrated into main depot operations, which consist of daily service, maintenance, parking and vehicle dispatch. In a real-world case study, the developed algorithms for dispatching and price-oriented charging are applied. The results show the depot processes of 74 electric buses over a week and a charging profile in low-cost electricity price intervals as well as a 56.6 % reduction in peak load compared to charging without management.