Abstract:
In this research work, an inclusive study has been carried out on the effect of Battery
operated Electric Three Wheelers locally called ‘Easy-bike’ on the Bangladesh national
power grid. Easy-bike has become a widely used para-transport in urban transportation
system of Bangladesh. These vehicles were first commercially introduced in 2004. Since
then, there has been an increase in large numbers and now the number has raised to 1
million. Their power consumption has been significant and poses impact to the electricity
generation and daily load profile which is a matter of concern for the power sector.
Effective charging system and management should address the issue. Very few works has
been reported in literature on this issue. Because of the large number of this vehicles even
a small amount of improvement of the charger efficiency should have a huge impact on
power grid. Necessary data was collected and analyzed here for the evaluation of the
effect. The results of the analysis verified that, over the course of the last eleven years,
after the deployment of the Easy-bike, the electricity generation at peak hours has been
significantly shifted. A huge load was consistently observed over night including peak
hour. The represented results indicate that this extra consumption is mostly due to the
integration of a dominant load like Easy-bike charging. A survey was also carried out for
an in-depth analysis of the effects of Easy-bikes. Various important technical facts and
problems of Easy-bike battery and its charging system were discussed. Currently the
charging procedure is found to be uncontrolled, and no safety measures are taken for
overcharging conditions. An efficient microcontroller based charger has been designed to
eradicate the problem found in existing charger, to save energy, as well as to reduce
charging time to manage load during peak hour. The charger was constructed and tested
in the laboratory. The experimental data proved that there are large scopes of energy
saving in this modified charging system. A timer controlled charging circuit has also been
proposed to reduce load from peak hour. Effective introduction of the designed circuit
and the load management would result in a large power and peak demand shaving for
Bangladesh power grid.
