Blockchain and Smart Charging Infrastructure of Electric Vehicles

The rapid spread of electric vehicles will be one of the key elements for the transition to sustainable energy and at the same time will lead to the reduction of air pollution in cities. Obviously, the forecast estimates of the demand for electricity will have to be reconsidered and above all the functioning of the electricity grid and the two-way energy exchange methods, also to ensure that everyone is aware of this opportunity. The remodeling of electric mobility must therefore be reconsidered to reduce renewable energy costs, increase the flexibility of the smart grid, and make EVs available to the greatest number of prosumers, even in shared mode. Another point to consider is the implementation of the charging points, considering the risk that if not carefully controlled and increasing the peak load in the smart grid, and proper planning of the charging stations is necessary to avoid network congestion; for example, if a large number of electric vehicles were charged at the same time, it could lead to an excessive increase in costs, due to an increase in unnecessary available power. In this, smart grids have a fundamental task, to obtain new models for managing energy flows, recharging EVs, and related cost profiles.
Another crucial factor, supporting this evolution toward electric mobility, will be the ability to generate business models, which, in addition to supporting the needs of food and a profit for the supply of ancillary services and power systems, will also have to support the needs of EVs fleets, considering vehicle and battery consumption. Then, it will be necessary to analyze factors such as the charging time, the duration, and the state of the battery, since, in the case of shared fleets of electric vehicles, an operating model is established “on demand,” with an energy market that involves fluctuations cost and therefore appropriate charge-discharge, which reduces the life of the batteries.
Finally, since a battery of an electric vehicle alone would not be able to bring advantages to the network, it is necessary that they are aggravated, as in shared systems, or that there are many electric vehicles in circulation, whose owners want to provide the transfer of service energy from the battery to the grid, in exchange for a fiscal or economic advantage. This chapter aims to analyze scenarios for a new electric mobility, an integral part of Smart Cities.