IET Smart Grid

Review Article

Battery swapping station for electric vehicles: eISSN 2515-2947

Received on 6th March 2019

opportunities and challenges

Revised 15th February 2020
Accepted on 6th April 2020
E-First on 19th May 2020
doi: 10.1049/iet-stg.2019.0059
www.ietdl.org

Furkan Ahmad1 , Mohammad Saad Alam1, Ibrahim Saad Alsaidan2, Samir M. Shariff3
1Department of Electrical Engineering, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India
2Department of Electrical Engineering, Qassim University, Buraydah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
3Department of Electrical Engineering, Taibah University, Al-Medina, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

E-mail: furkanahmad@zhcet.ac.in

Abstract: In contemporary days, the research and development enterprises have been focusing to design intelligently the
battery swap station (BSS) architecture having the prospects of providing a consistent platform for the successful installation of
the large-scale fleet of hybrid and electric vehicles (i.e. xEVs). The BSS may calibrate its subsystem for the electric vehicle (EV)
deployment by accomplishing similar idea as in existing gasoline refuelling stations, in which the discharged batteries are being
replaced or swapped by partially or fully charged ones by spending a few minutes. The BSS approach has arisen as a
promising technology to the traditional EV recharging station approach as it provides a broader experience of business
prospects for the specific stakeholders. This work deals with the introduction to BSS including infrastructure, techniques,
benefits over charging station and key challenges associated with BSS. Furthermore, an S34X-smart swapping station for xEVs
is proposed and finally, the key thrust is research for BSS is discussed. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first kind of review
work on BSS.

1 Introduction charging and wireless (inductive) charging, the battery swapping

Vehicles are the demand for today's fast life but an increased
number of vehicles have grown many serious issues on the
environment and also on their management. Moreover, since they
are driven by the power of non-renewable sources there is a need to
develop better alternatives for future public transportation with an
efficient vehicle management section. Dependency on fossil fuels
makes them unsustainable as a major part of these have been
exhausted and it will take thousands of years to generate them
again and hence with them they also make the transportation
unsustainable [1]. At the epicentre of this research is the idea of
revolutionising the entire automobile sector, which can be realised
employing the concept of xEVs. The xEVs are indeed the need of
the hour owing to above-mentioned reasons and many others too
[2]. The development of the xEV technology must be concomitant
with the development of the charging technology for vehicles [3–
9].
The charging infrastructure constitutes the backbone of the
xEVs [9]. The diverse genres of xEVs include plug-in electric
vehicles (EVs), plug-in hybrid EVs etc. and are sensational in
numerous prospects that include reliance from fossil fuels,
monetary savings, emission-free, safe driving, reduction in noise,
low maintenance etc. [10–18]. The development of xEV
technologies is receiving a warm welcome as a centre of happiness
in the EV industry. Even though such positive evidence, there still
some concerns are related to such novel ideas for those
stakeholders who need to envision, before they plan to spend in
electric fleet rollouts [2, 19, 20]. Owing to scarcity in the
availability of recharging stations, extended charging delay,
coercion by underlying utility grid, and the most important is the
inherent EV range anxiety (EVRA) problem, the social hindrance
may arise [21–28] in the existing xEV owners. The noticeable and
promising charging techniques comprise the conductive xEV
charging (flow of power between EV supply equipment (EVSE)
and EV battery through the conductive link), inductive charging
(flow of power between EVSE and EV battery wirelessly through
the induction principle), and the EV battery swapping system
(where the discharged battery is replaced by a fully charged one)
[29]. As of accelerated development in the field of the conductive
system, i.e. the third one, has still not deployed as a commercially
feasible option. Amongst all, the battery swapping appears to be an
appropriate solution for the present-day scenario. As against the
conductive method for charging through EVSE, the swapping of
the EV battery proposes one key benefit, i.e. quick recharging of
the xEVs. The job is effortless, the car driver simply drives his
vehicle to a battery swap station (BSS), park in a dedicated area,
the battery swapped is autonomously done, and drives back after
making the payment [30–32]. Tesla has already switched to the
business for over three years and the whole operation consumes
less than a pair of minutes, even quicker than refuelling an internal
combustion engine vehicle. Coupled to this, the range that such
services provide is like the holy grail of electric mobility. It tunes
the flexibility and usability of xEVs with that of combustion
vehicles [33].
The research in xEVs is going towards maturity (Fig. 1 shows
the EV charging timeline) [34–38]. The controversies lie in the
commercial adoption of such vehicles. Though modern Li batteries
used in xEVs are potent to satisfy the majority of users in their
diversified trips (fast/slow, long/short drive etc.), there is only a
small ratio of total journeys that exceeds the available range thus
producing a stumbling block to its mass adoption by users [39].
The disastrous EVRA syndrome needs to be resolved to put up the
xEV adoption on the desired pace. One feasible approach is the
deployment of dense and robust charging infrastructure, allowing
the consumers to recharge their vehicles at regular intervals.
However, preliminary investigation on such infrastructures already
deployed in developed countries (Japan, Germany, Canada, North-
America etc.) reveal that there still arise some inevitable pitfalls
which need to be addressed and resolved [40]. These issues may
evolve in the form of lack of reliability in charge points, delay due
to queuing at such charge points, security and management
concerns etc. Such architectures demand adequate access to help
mitigate the EVRA and queuing at stations concerns [41].
Moreover, the xEV crowd requires an aggregation entity that
ensembles the vehicle fleet on the front end and regulates the loads
on the smart grid in the back end, intending to establish a hassle-
free operation of the infrastructure. Efficient dynamic energy
management mechanisms are required to shape load on the

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Fig. 1 Development in xEV infrastructure
underlying power system caused by a massive xEV fleet. Several
works have been focused on multidimensional aspects of an ideal
BSS deployment, considering both customers, the BSS owner and
the smart grids. The configuration of a BSS such as number of
batteries, chargers, employees and other entities is to be decided in
advance and dependent on the nature of the fleet that the BSS has
to manage. Since the resource at each end is limited, whether it is
the investment cost of the BSS owner or running cost of a xEV/bus
driver or it may be the burden on the grid system, there should be a
multi-objective optimisation model that assures all these met [30,
42–45].
Furthermore, Section 2 deals with the different battery
swapping techniques. Section 3 explains the functioning of the
BSS. In Section 4, BSSs have been explained for public transport,
Sections 5 and 6 give the detail of associated benefits and
challenges. A BSS model has been proposed in Section 7, and
further, Section 8 concluded the key finding of the study and
suggested some future research interest.
2 Different battery swapping techniques
The steps involve for swapping of the battery at BSS is replacing
the used battery that has been depleted below its predetermined
state-of-charge (SoC) level from a new and fully charged one to
sustain the electrified transportation. The early 19th century backs
the history of swapping when the interchangeable battery services
were first suggested to overcome the limited range of electric cars,
trucks etc. [46], in which the exchange process was done by
utilising the manpower. Better Place [47] was the first
commercially deployed battery switching service that employed the
swapping strategy for electric cars. The swapping technique was
not implemented for heavy-duty vehicles (buses and trucks) and
was limited to electric cars only. However, due to high capital
investment for developing charging and swapping infrastructure
and lower market penetration, the company incurred severe
financial losses and was eventually liquidated. The battery
swapping technique for electric buses was first used commercially
by China in 2008 during the summer Olympics when they switched
batteries of ∼50 buses operating over different routes [48]. Since
then the swapping technique for the buses has been widely
implemented in China, Japan, South Korea, and other countries as
well. The different swapping techniques are discriminated based on
the position of the battery in the vehicle and the point of
application of the robotic arm and are given as follows:
• Sideways swapping: This is mostly employed in case of vans
and other vehicles where the sideways position is the most
convenient.
• Rear swapping: This is utilised for the vehicles in which the
battery is placed from backwards. Usually in the case of cars
with large boot space.
• Bottom swapping: This is used for the vehicles whose battery is
placed at the bottom of the vehicle. The swapping station is built
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in the manner such that the car is placed on an elevated platform
and the batteries are swapped from the bottom using a robotic
arm and other accessories generally, placed below the ground
level.
• Top swapping: This is most commonly used for the electric
buses wherein the batteries are placed at the top and upon the
arrival of the bus, the rooftop opens and the swapping is
completed by means of the robotic arm.
3 Functioning of the swapping station
To establish and successfully implement the swapping technique
for buses, vans, and other cars, extensive planning needs to be done
covering all the necessary requirements ranging from the
availability of the batteries, chargers to data storage and
management through cloud and communication between the
components to ensure interoperability. The BSS for the vehicles
will operate successfully provided there is continuous
communication between the different components of the system
viz. the smart vehicle, swapping station, and information system.
The information system will be used to communicate with the
vehicle as well as with the station. The vehicle will communicate
with the information system through the WAVE communication
while the station will utilise the local internet for communication.
When the vehicle's battery is depleted, the information system will
receive the notification from the vehicle, requesting a battery
swapping service. The information system will inform the station
about the location of the vehicle, its expected arrival time and
identifications so that it prepares the battery by the time the vehicle
reaches the station. Once the vehicle reaches the station, the driver
swipes his membership card and the information system locates all
the relevant data correlated with this card. This data includes
information concerning the vehicle, battery, vehicle's swapping
history, transactions completed and other pertinent information.
Operating personnel will verify this data and direct the customer
towards the swapping area where the required battery switching
will take place by means of a robotic arm. All the data is being
backed up on cloud storage from where it will be accessible to the
authorities as well as customers to ensure complete transparency
within the procedures. Once the swapping is done, the vehicle's
battery will be monitored immediately for its state of charge, state
of health (SOH), remaining charge, battery age, battery life,
number of charging and discharging cycles undergone and
accordingly the owner will be informed about the charges incurred
and the estimated time by which he can receive his fully charged
battery. The robotic arms will sequentially place the battery within
the charging racks in which each slot has the capability to charge
the battery. The electric bus battery pack has a battery management
system that monitors safety, voltage, and temperature of the
individual cells for charge safety and balancing. The high voltage
battery connector will be attached manually and only when the
connector and the inlet have been sealed the charging begins. The
closed contact between the connector and the inlet will be
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Fig. 2 Typical BSS processing unit
safeguarded by means of a latch which will allow the current to
flow once the contact is complete. Also, the swapping station has
the ability to perform bi-directional power flow with the grid.
Load curve is improved by the process of charging in off-peak
hours and injection of power into the grid during peak hours by the
stored batteries. This process eventually increases the overall
efficiency of power systems. To generate revenue from its
charging/supplying patterns, the swapping station will supply when
the demand is high (high price) and borrow when the demand is
low (low price), this scheduling of power will also be a substantial
factor when considering the economic feasibility of the swapping
stations.
Distribution transformer, AC–DC converters, battery chargers,
vehicle batteries, robotic arms, charging racks, maintenance
systems, and control systems are the chief components of a BSS
along with other equipment necessary for swapping and charging
of batteries. There exist two possible locations for the converters in
the BSS. In the first one, we have a central AC–DC converter
connected directly to the distribution transformer, providing DC
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power to all the chargers. In the second configuration, we have
AC–DC converters placed locally at each of the chargers providing
DC power. Both the configurations are feasible but generally, the
latter one is preferred because it provides the advantage of
operability even if any one of the converters is not in operation
state. Also, the centralised AC–DC converter will be a very large
one in terms of size, weight, and cost which might raise issues
during installation.
As shown in Fig. 2, any power distribution substation (1) can
also be monitored by said BSS control room (2). The said control
room (2) can control and/or regulate and/or monitor the overall
functioning of the said BSS. The said charging racks (3) equipped
with any slow and/or fast charging methods capable EVSEs
coupled with the said battery racks (4). The said swapping track (5)
can facilitate any logistics and/or safety check and/or manual
and/or automatic unscrewing and/or screwing the battery of any
xEV. The said swapping lane (6) can be any stationary and/or
moving lane from the entry point to the exit point of the said BSS.
The said swapping robot (7) can facilitate any xEV discharged
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battery removal and/or fetching any xEV compatible charged
battery from said battery rack and/or installation of any battery
pack on any xEV through any battery swapping method on the said
swapping lane (6). The said battery/charger maintenance room (8)
can facilitate any maintenance and/or repair as and when required
for any battery and/or charger. The said BSS maintenance room (9)
can facilitate any maintenance and/or housekeeping as and when
required for the ideal and/or optimal operation of the said BSS
The swapping station operates on the first-in-first-out principle,
i.e. the vehicle arriving first will be given priority for their
swapping services as compared to those who arrive later. To attend
the demand of all the vehicles approaching the swapping stations, it
is necessary that the batteries must be charged immediately after
swapping so that they are available to other arriving customers.
This integrated operation of stations will optimise the vehicle for
its route, allowing the vehicle to maximise its journey with
minimal lag. Battery charging factories and BSS serve as a base for
the current EV battery swapping systems.
A logistics system is generally employed for the transportation
of a large number of centrally-charged batteries. Battery logistics
strategy, BSS planning and construction strategy, and battery
charging strategy for the BSSs are getting a lot of attention for
research [49].
All these approaches do not intend to satisfy the goal of ‘get
energy replenishment anytime and anywhere rather they are
intended to expand the coverage and service of a battery swapping
system’. Owing to various constraints such as geographical
location, limited availability of BSSs, crowd at stations, and other
factors, there is a need to design a more adaptable and effective EV
battery swapping architecture [46]. The passive mode does not
realise the objective of ‘get energy replenishment anytime and
anywhere’. EV users must drive to a BSS for battery swapping.
Owing to the obvious constraints of location and number of the
existing battery BB, there may still be a queuing and waiting
phenomenon.
However, in active battery swapping mode, the mobility of the
battery swapping van removes the constraints of location and
quantity of EV battery swapping stations. Transitioning to active
battery swapping mode from existing battery swapping mode is the
potential way to solve this problem. Recent literature also discusses
the development of a novel fast EV battery swapping device. The
flexible design of this device can convert a van into a mobile EV
BSS when installed [49–52].
This device takes advantage of its components such as a
positioning pin, positioning hole, positioning track, positioning
slot, and programmable logic controller (PLC) control system for
delivering accurate positioning and convenient swapping. The
process only takes a few minutes due to its parallel removal and
installation procedure for battery swapping. Numerically it is only
3 min in experimental setups. An automatic battery swap is done
by driving EVs into the predetermined position in battery swapping
van through a folding slope steel. This fixes the location constraints
and hence increases the quantity of EV BSSs and adds flexibility to
system [49].
4 BSSs for public transport
One of the most crucial and widely used public transportation
vehicles is an inner-city traveller bus [53]. Owing to their
flexibility, economic feasibility, and ability to operate over all
possible routes with fewer maintenances/services, they are
employed over almost all the routes within a city. The
characteristic features of the electric bus are stated as follows:
firstly, the buses run over predefined routes with a predefined
schedule. Secondly, the buses operate throughout the service hours
and stop only when any malfunction occurs. Thirdly, the buses
have very small time breaks between their trips, which is once a
single trip is completed bus is immediately prepared for the next
trip with minimal stoppage time. This is done to maximise the
deployment of the fleet buses without parking them at the depots
for long periods. These features can persuade as well as dissuade
the concept of electrification of the buses. The merits of using an
electric bus can be that the bus utility can be optimised to satisfy
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the schedule to a certain extent with minimal harm to the
environment [54, 55]. One grave issue that would require attention
would be of charging the batteries once they are depleted. This is
where the battery swapping technique becomes an indispensable
requirement of the transportation system to avoid the lags in
schedule and optimise the utility of the buses. The merits of
swapping technique for electric bus are as follows:
• The battery swapping technique is a fast and efficient method as
compared to the different available vehicle charging schemes,
thereby allowing the consumer to continue the drive without
much delay.
• The battery swapping technique reduces the customer waiting
time as well as prolongs the battery life (better battery
chemistry) as compared to those which undergo the fast
charging scheme (50 kW and more) as the battery is charged at
the desired voltage for a long duration.
• Bidirectional power flow is incorporated in BSSs for connection
with the grid. The load curve is improved by the process of
charging in off-peak hours and injection of power into the grid
during peak hours by the stored batteries. This process
eventually increases the overall efficiency of power systems.
This is also more economical for station owners when they have
enough charged batteries for supporting their needs.
• The battery swapping technique for the public transit electric
buses would allow the optimisation of these vehicles to satisfy
their schedule to a certain extent with minimal harm to the
environment. The battery pack of an operational electric bus has
a capacity ranging from 320 up to 590 kWh. Even the
widespread deployment of fast DC charging (rating up to 240 
kW, 200 A, 480 V) would consume sufficient time that would
eventually disrupt the normal operation of the transportation
system. This is where the battery swapping technique becomes
an indispensable requirement of the transportation system to
avoid the lags in schedule and enhance the utility of the buses.
• The employment of the battery swapping technique will be a
cost-effective measure for the bus owners as well as the station
owners because of mutually beneficial cost reductions arising
from utilities by recharging batteries at times of low load and
from improved efficiencies.
It is, therefore, the objective of this study is to provide the detailed
mutually beneficial, environment-friendly, state-of-the-art and
economically viable infrastructure of the BSSs for the heavy-duty
xEVs.
5 BSS benefits
5.1 Customer perspective
Battery is believed as the costlier part in customer's view for
having an EV. The discussed and projected BSS scheme will allow
the customer to lease the battery instead of lump investment which
was estimated between $12,000 and $14,000 for replacement of 24 
kWh in 2012 [56].
Very long charging times, up-gradation of household
installations to high power chargers, and the limited number of
public charging stations are some other concerning parts for EV
owners. Level 1 chargers of a typical rating between 1 and 6 kW
are used for direct connection in households which takes 15 h for
completely charging a 24-kWh battery. However, up-gradation
alternatives for a less charging time of up to 7 h are available as
level II chargers with a power rating of 3.3 kW. However, the up-
gradation cost is an extra investment and is estimated at $849 in
2013. Even if owners will agree to invest this amount then also
they will not be able to use it fully due to the limitations in
household current supply [56].
The relatively small size of the batteries also poses as a
constraint for EV users and it results mainly to a limited range.
Easy access of owners to BSSs can eliminate these problems.
Otherwise, the traditional methods are not cost-effective in terms of
heavy infrastructure when compared to the proposed mobile BSSs.
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Fig. 3 Challenges of BSS
Fig. 4 S34X-smart swapping station for xEVs
5.2 Power system benefits
With a rapidly growing EV market the need for fast chargers can
become the prime concern of consumers. To keep with the
advancements in technology they will be required to upgrade to the
latest available charger to satisfy their daily energy needs. In this
aspect, BSSs are obviously superior to the traditional charging
infrastructures as the upgrade is only needed at the BSS site
whereas in the traditional framework the upgrade is to be made on
both sides, i.e. at the household level and also at the charging
station. Furthermore, as the system is a pack of batteries, it can
inject power back into the grid, smoothing the net daily demand
curve and can provide services to the system as a whole. This very
feature of the proposed BSS apart from being a storage device
offers additional benefits such as frequency regulation, load
following, and voluntary reserve provisions [56].
6 BSS challenges
Let us talk about battery swapping; the main benefit associated
with the swapping model is speed. The whole operation could take
less than five minutes, pretty much the same amount of time many
people spend filling their gas tanks at stations today. Another plus
point is that people need not have to leave their vehicle or deal with
potentially tangled or dirty cords. You could sit in your vehicle
while the operation takes place. However, the picture is more
complex than this, and below the challenges associated with BSS
have been shown in Fig. 3. Furthermore, it has been explained in
detail in [57].
6.1 Interchangeability
Brand compatibility and cross-platform features promise the
success of technology and make it a dominant trend of the market.
The availability of similar interchangeable battery packs of
different manufacturers is the only hope of a battery swapping
system to stand firm as a primary option. This simple solution is
dependent on the manufacturer's consent. However, this might limit
the innovation, uniqueness, and flexibility of products designed
exclusively by any manufacturer. Moreover, it will also limit
product development as cell manufacturers, residing at the top of
the product chain, will have to design standardised cells to provide
similar cells to next level manufacturing entity, only through which
further standardisation can be produced. One can argue that there
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might be different power segments for the battery pack, but this
would then create a problem with supply and demand and also,
possible compatibility issues with vehicles not designed for higher
or lower powered battery packs [46, 57].
6.2 Feasibility
The battery design is currently posing as the highest hurdle of
battery swapping technology. The design of the battery should
incorporate robustness in removing and re-installing it from the
vehicle. In India, only a few vehicles are presently offering such
battery pack designs. For example, Hero Maxi allows discharged
battery to be swapped easily with a charged battery and the
discharged battery can be put to charging separately [54, 57, 58].
6.3 Infrastructure
The infrastructure required for the battery packs is immense and
much more complex and expensive than charging. BSSs in
comparison with charging stations exert the same magnitude of
demand with the prime requirement of charging the battery packs.
The sole difference is that the demand of the former can be
controlled (even in a practical scenario, the battery packs should
always be available for consecutive incoming customers and hence
should offer charging time accordingly). Furthermore, to fulfil the
daily requirement of any station, the stacked quantum of charged
battery packs should always exceed by a certain percentage of
daily demand. So, the feasible strategy is to keep one battery pack
within the vehicle and another at swapping station, i.e. two battery
packs for every car. Even after sorting all this out it still seems a
distant future, as the economics of a nationwide battery swapping
system is not speaking in favour when compared with a nationwide
car charging system [1, 59].
6.4 Battery degradation
The maximum battery charge range is negatively affected by the
degradation of its performance over time. Hence the new battery
packs will be more favoured by customers over the option of other
relatively old battery packs as they will offer low energy storage
due to degradation over time and this will reflect in the mileage of
EVs. Hence the content of customers will lie only in new battery
packs, which considerably, will reduce the operating cycle of any
battery pack [59].
6.5 Battery ownership
The vehicle owner owns the battery: in this case, the owner will
have to purchase an additional battery pack that can be used as a
replacement battery when the battery in the vehicle gets
discharged, which is very less likely to happen!
The ownership over a battery pack will always be null for a
vehicle owner. This offers several advantages. Since the vehicle
owner does not own it he does not have to pay for it, which makes
EV cheaper. On the contrary, he is never getting the swapped
battery back and has to pay an additional lease amount besides the
cost of energy. This can be charged on each swapping or any other
mutually agreed frequency, say one month. The later method of
lease amount is costly considering the least amount is inclusive of
minimum two battery packs and service charge of swapping station
(whereas only one battery is bought if the vehicle is charged and
has one owned battery). The lease-on-each-swap option is, even
more, costlier (as swapping stations will be at an elevated level of
investment risks) and will bend customers for less usage of
swapping stations to avoid these excessive charges, especially
when a charging option is available [60].
7 Proposed BSS architecture (S34X)
The S34X (smart swapping station for xEVs) architecture proposed
in this work (Fig. 4) is a cloud-integrated big-data driven model
battery swapping. The whole architecture can be broadly delineated
into three modules, each having a number of sub-modules having
distinctive functionalities. The three major actors in the S34X
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architecture are hybrid cloud, smart BSS, and xEVs. Each of the
modules is assembled into the S34X architecture through reliable
information, data, and control interfaces. These interfaces ensure a
one to one communication between each pair of modules. The
function of each module is explained in the following section.
7.1 Smart BSS
The smart BSS is unique from the prevalent BSS in that the
functionalities of the same are augmented through the integration
of its services with a hybrid cloud. The swapping station is
designed not only to serve the xEV fleet with charged batteries but
its operation is unbounded to perform diverse roles such as that of
aggregator, mobility manager, intelligent system etc. This work
proposes a two-tier architecture for the rendering of the operation
mechanisms of smart BSS. At the inner tier, the modules are
dedicated to the internal operations of smart BSS. The outer layer
actually forms the backbone of the S34X architecture, as the
modules defined in this tier establish the framework for the
execution of inner layer functionalities.
7.1.1 TIER 1: primitive layer: This layer defines the ultimate
objectives of smart BSS. Here the functionalities of a smart BSS
are modularised into multiple units. These operations are primarily
under the direct supervision of swap station administrator. The
scheduler again performs a double-handed job. Inside the BSS, it
schedules the plugging of batteries into a charger while on the
external face it prioritises the allocation of suitable batteries to the
xEVs. The scheduling of batteries as well as the xEVs are
intelligently programmed to ensure reliable, consistent, and risk-
free operation of the smart BSS thereby maintaining setup for
minimum possible queuing delay for the xEVs. Swapping robots,
swapping lane, and skilled workers comprise a swapper. Smart
BSS due to the day ahead module and term ahead module (TAM)
participate in the ancillary market. To activate BSS for
participation in auxiliary energy services, TAM uses forecasted
data of day-ahead market demands. Furthermore, smart BSS may
use the distributed resources such as a solar photovoltaic system,
and turbine integrating with the smart microgrid system in
islanding as well as grid-connected mode. Apart from these, smart
BSSs equipped with a load matching module which helps in flatter
the demand in meantime of higher demand.
7.1.2 TIER 2: BSS enhanced: The modules in the outer level
enterprises the foundation for smooth execution inner layer
primitives. The entities in this layer extend the functionalities of
smart BSS to data-enhanced mode, i.e. data analytics form the
basis of these modules. The various components of BSS enhanced
layer are
• BSS aggregator (BSSA): The BSSA module ranges the functions
of a swapping station to act as an aggregator to participate in the
day-ahead and term-ahead business. The BSSA adopts efficient
methodologies to implement bidding strategies thereby ensuring
a win–win strategy for both xEV consumers and BSS owners.
The various bidding models that can be used are game theory,
• Mobility management unit (MMU): The MMU specifies the
trends and protocols to be used for management of xEV fleet. It
baselines the scheduling standards for the BSS scheduler. The
various services of MMU are traffic management, mobility
management (big data drive) etc.
• Modes for BSS (M4B): The M4B component defines the
charging rates and priority levels for xEVs. The xEV users opt
for various modes of charging depending upon the level of
emergency. The available modes are executive, economic, and
slow charging. The corresponding tariff structure varies,
respectively, from highest to least in these modes.
• Data as a service (DAAS): The smart sensors installed at the
xEVs end are intelligent utilities that are used to synchronise the
operation (the function of sensors)
• Smart location tracking system (SLTS): The intelligent
positioning tracks the real-time attributes of the xEVs such as
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SOC, SOH, degree of range anxiety etc. to prepare the BSS to
efficiently programme its charging and swapping profile.
7.2 Hybrid cloud
The multi-tenant cloud deployment model congregates the BSS,
xEVs, and other entities involved in the S34X architecture into a
common and consistent platform. The cloud smartly schemes the
operations of smart BSS to realise the xEV battery swapping
process within the least possible time limits. In addition, the
charging of the batteries is sequenced intelligently to achieve the
maximum battery hit ratio.
7.3 SBSS xEV network
The smart xEVs are equipped with S34X apps, intelligent sensors.
The prime objective of this architecture can be dedicated to
perspectives of two acting entities, xEVs and smart BSS owners.
From the xEV user's perspective, the prime objectives are
affordable swapping tariff, reliable battery swapping service with
maximum hit ratio, mitigating EVRA concerns and minimum
queuing delay while from smart BSS owner's outlook the main
motives are a minimum start-up investment and maximum
earnings. This work explains the timing and cost optimisation
model for S34X architecture for ensuring a framework that
minimises queuing delay for the xEVs and maximises the profits
for the BSS owners, respectively.
8 Summary and future work
BSS strategies are arising as a promising alternative to the
traditional battery charging station approach since they provide a
wider set of business opportunities to the dedicated stakeholders.
This work has presented the multidimensional aspects of an ideal
BSS deployment. The complete infrastructure, techniques, and
benefits of BSS with respect to the consumer, power system
operator, and aggregator has been presented. Furthermore, the key
challenges associated with the BSS such as interchangeability,
feasibility, infrastructure, battery degradation, and battery
ownership is discussed in detail. Furthermore, the following area
can be considered as a thrust area of research:
• Concept of the energy of entities (EoE) for contemporary power
system infrastructures, discussed its significance in launching
economically viable swap station networks.
• BSS topologies that work under the EoE paradigm.
• Need for optimisation framework defining business model for
swapping stations corresponding each stakeholder involved in
the smart charging infrastructure, i.e. smart grid, aggregators,
and xEV customers.
• Needs to define internet of things (IoT) paradigms shall be
emerged as the supreme technology in providing utilities to
intelligent transport specifically for smart charging of xEVs.
• • Efficient multi-layer fog computing architecture for intelligent
transportation and explained its significance in designing smart
xEV-based BSSs.
• • Need to highlight the data science prospects and challenges
that may evolve during installation and running of BSS
infrastructure.
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