Study of the Energy Efficiency of an Urban E-Bike Charged with a Standalone Photovoltaic Solar Charging Station and its Compliance with the Ecuadorian Grid Code No. Arcernnr – 002/20

E-bikes are an emerging sustainable means of transportation, if adopted massively, they can help face the challenges of human mobility in urban centers worldwide. In Cuenca, Ecuador, the local government built cycle routes (13.47 km) connecting strategic points to facilitate and encourage sustainable mobility. However, the effective implementation of the electromobility strategies at a large scale entails impacts on the power grid, like the increase in the energy demand and the possible decrease of the energy quality due to the harmonic distortion that characterizes the battery’s charging current. This research aims to obtain a primary input to evaluate such impacts through an energy efficiency study of an urban e-bike charged by a standalone solar photovoltaic charging station implemented in the Microgrid Laboratory of Universidad de Cuenca.
The methodology includes the experimental characterization of the battery’s charging regime, the vehicle’s energy efficiency calculation, and the evaluation of its compliance with Ecuadorian grid code No. ARCERNNR – 002/20. Results show that the battery’s charger performs a charging regime standardized by German regulations, delivering 92% of charge in 4.82 hours. The e-bike’s calculated average
energy efficiency is 2.18 kWh/100 miles or 73.77 m/Wh, and a fuel economy of 1545.1 MPGe. Finally, the magnitude of the first four odd harmonic components and the total harmonic distortion of the charging current exceeds the limits established by the grid code in force.