Rural, grid-independent vehicle charging microgrids.

The push towards net zero is leading to the increased electrification of systems, especially transport. Rural locations are increasingly more vulnerable to increased electrification, as the existing utility grid is significantly weaker, and less likely to be able to support the required increase in electrical load. Therefore, it will be necessary to reinforce the utility supply to rural areas to facilitate the higher demands, or find a different approach avoiding expensive grid reinforcement. If this is not done, such areas risk being left behind in the race to net zero, in the same way they were affected by the roll-out of mobile internet infrastructure (3/4/5G etc).

To address this, the project aims to identify the key drivers and requirements for microgrids, deployed in rural locations where there is no or insufficient utility grid supply connection to support the energy demand. The project will investigate issues surrounding typical loadings on such systems, for example emergency pumps and lighting, together with EV charging usage from both private and company vehicles which may visit the rural microgrid location. The project will investigate the potential for green generation on site, through the use of PV, wind, hydro, as available at any given location. Furthermore, the project will also consider the on-site storage requirements to enable multi-scale energy storage, addressing both inter-day and inter-seasonal storage requirements. The project will initially build on a previous project investigating rural EV charging, by determining possible loads which may be seen on a stand-alone microgrid, from possible EV charging to more utilitarian loads, for example, pumps, lighting etc. Typical loads found at example locations will be characterised through interaction with industrial partners, where appropriate, or through public surveys and questionnaires where required. The load requirements will then underpin the determination of a typical load profile to be supplied by the microgrid, incorporating temporal variations. The widely varying timescales will require significant research into suitable hybridisation of energy storage media at a scale suitable for incorporation into the microgrid. The system needs to be optimised to deliver the lowest cost / kWh of delivered energy to the load, preferably comparable to that of a grid connection.

The project runs alongside a large UKRI funded programme grant on hybrid energy storage systems for grid-independent EV charging stations and there will be significant opportunities for the successful candidate to interact with the interdisciplinary team, and indeed, vary the direction of the project within the overall scope of the grant. The team at Sheffield currently comprises 4 academics, 4 research assistants and a PhD student, therefore plenty of support is available for the right candidate.

Applicants must have ‘home’ fee status with at least 2.1 / 1st in Electronic and Electrical engineering or closely related discipline.

Applications should be made using the information on this page.