Preparing for the future of 'autonomous' EVs with a digital twin

In an exclusive interview during Enlit on the Road, Reza Razi, a Research Engineer at the Laboratory of Electrical Engineering and Power Electronics (L2EP) at the University of Lille, explains how he and his team created a digital twin of combined transportation and power networks for efficient scheduling of autonomous electric vehicles.

As the world increasingly focuses on a sustainable future, the adoption of autonomous EVs is gaining momentum.

This comes with questions on managing its accompanying increase in electricity demand, its effect on the power network, and the algorithm behind scheduling the traffic flow.

This is where Razi and his team step in, who have been coordinating the digital twin project to simulate the coordination of smart, efficient and autonomous EV charging, in line with power network requirements.

States Razi on the trouble of coordinating autonomous EV fleet charging, which “poses significant challenges:

“The direct implementation of new approaches on the real network can be a little costly or potentially risky.”

More from Enlit on the Road- Haute-de-France:
Site visit: France’s first EV battery gigafactory
How improving energy efficiency of electrical machines is key to the energy transition
How cross-sector collaboration can help the energy transition in France

Hence the need for a digital twin.

The project, which combines two powerful, real-time simulators – the OPAL-RT for modelling electrical grids and Spherea for simulating transportation networks – allows Razi and his team to “explore real-time monitoring, analysis and optimisation of system performance.”

Make sure to watch the rest of the Enlit on the Road Hauts-de-France interview with Razi for a run down on using the system as well as the planned expansion of the project’s tech from a small town near Lille, Forest-sur-Marque, and hopeful across the European continent.