Mitigating the charging rush hour

Great effort is put into making our mobility system more sustainable in order to mitigate climate change. One corner stone of this endeavour is the transition from internal combustion engines to electric engines for private cars. This transition, however, introduces new challenges, especially regarding the demand for electrical energy from renewable sources. One emerging phenomenon is the so-called charging rush hour, i.e. a sharp demand spike when many people arrive home and begin charging their electric cars. In this study we use an agent-based model calibrated with empirical data on mobility behaviour to investigate strategies for mitigating this charging rush hour. Studied counter strategies include telecommuting and the possibility to charge the car at work. Our findings show that the baseline peak of 65 MW per 100 000 people can only be reduced to 55 MW per 100 000 people even when combining multiple strategies. Thus the small incentives and policy changes investigated here are not enough to solve the problem of the charging rush hour and more disruptive changes to our mobility system are required.