Hybrid System Configurations and Charging Strategies for Isolated Electric Tuk-Tuk Charging Station in South Africa

Abstract — The success of renewable powered electric vehicle charging station in isolated areas depends highly on the availability and sustainability of renewable resources all year round at a selected location. The main focus of this paper is to discuss the possible charging strategies that could be implemented to find the best possible configuration of an electric Tuk-Tuk charging station at a given location within South Africa. The charging station is designed, modeled and simulated to evaluate its performances. The techno-economic analysis of different feasible supply configurations of the charging station using renewable energies is simulated using HOMER software and the results compared in order to select the best possible charging strategies in terms of cost of energy consumed. Keywords — Electric Tuk-Tuk, Renewable energy, Energy Storage, Hybrid systems, HOMER.I. I NTRODUCTION OUTH AFRICA’s population as well as the economy has grown significantly in recent years, so the demand for passenger transport, electricity as well as private vehicle, water and sanitation has also increased. And it is a well-known factor that the countries transportation sector is facing significant challenges, with the vast majority of rural and township occupants relying on public transport, making this form of transport a critical tool for getting the workforce to and from work. Transportation sector is one of the largest consumers of energy in South Africa and it is vital for economic development, hence making the provision of affordable, safe and reliable transportation of goods and people critical to the development of the country [1], [2]. However traditional ways of transport with combustion engines that rely on fuel will prove to be unsustainable in future because of their carbon foot print and the country’s economy, due to the ongoing reliance on imported fuel since most of country’s imported fuel fossil is used mainly in the electricity generation and transportation sector [3]. Tuk-Tuks are portable and reliable three-wheeled vehicles which have been used for over 60 years in Asian, European, Central American, South American and in some African countries, and where introduced to South African roads due to their efficiency, stylistic simplicity, low oil consumption,