Designing a Recharging Grid for the Hybrid Vehicle System: Part I

To accelerate the development of the hybrid transportation system, there is a need to set up an infrastructure for the hybrid vehicle battery recharging at parking lots of universities as test grounds for this technology. This work focuses on setting up or implementing a pilot recharging network at Kettering University’s main parking lot with a capacity of over 500 vehicles. As the society is transitioning from the fossil fuel powered vehicles to hybridized systems, recharging outlet from fuel cell, solar and wind turbines sources should be in place to facilitate the transfer by 2015. This project details the infrastructural design using fuel cell energy from the Center for Fuel Cell Research of the University for setting up 50 pilot recharging outlets at the parking lot behind the Mott Engineering Building to recharge hybrid vehicles in the main parking lot of the University. The current resources at the Center include a 5 kW SOFC test station, a 4.4 kW Ballard LT-PEM fuel cell mounted on a 5 kW test stand and 1.5 kW high temperature HT-PEM produced by GEI LLC. The use of solar energy during the day is also considered. The applicable codes and standards regarding such installations are reviewed.