Eleftheria Kontou, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title

Electric Vehicles-Buildings Nexus: Urban Charging Management in Multi-Unit Dwellings and Offices

Time

1:40pm - 3:00pm

Location

1605 Tilia, Room 1103, West Village

Abstract

Democratizing access to charging infrastructure is a prerequisite for equitable electric vehicle (EV) adoption and use. Residential EV charging is the most prevalent and convenient option. However, multi-unit dwelling (MUD) residents have limited home charging access, leading to higher operating costs and less flexibility. In this talk, I introduce the concept of community charging hubs for shared charger use at MUDs. A modified job shop scheduling problem is formulated to optimize EV charging sessions’ scheduling. We apply our model, determine the charging hub’s performance, and evaluate the levelized cost of charging through a techno-economic assessment in Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles. We uncover tradeoffs between the charging hub’s performance and its levelized cost of charging. The workplace is the second most common charging location; in the second part of my talk, I propose managing the EVs-office nexus and uncovering opportunities where building energy savings can enable EV charging.

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Kontou is an assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on sustainable and electrified transportation systems planning and management. She received her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Florida, her MSc from Virginia Tech, and a Diploma from the National Technical University of Athens. She was a postdoctoral research associate at NREL’s Transportation and Hydrogen Systems Center and the City and Regional Planning Department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a TRB Committee on Alternative Fuels and Technologies member and the Chair of TRB’s Young Members Coordinating Council. She is a 2022 Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Faculty Scholar, a 2021 US Frontiers of Engineering Invited Participant, and a Levenick Sustainability Teaching Fellow at the University of Illinois. She is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Transportation Research Part D journal and an Early Career Advisory Board member of Transportation Research Part C journal and serves on the Steering Committee of the Chicago Area Clean Cities Coalition.