Commercial Solar PV Off-Grid Battery Charging/Swapping Station: Opportunity and Solution for E-rickshaw

In developing countries, E-rickshaw is becoming popular and plays a vital role in initial and last-mile connectivity. The main reason for the wide acceptance of this mode of public transport is that it is economical as compared to a CNG auto, reduces air pollution, and provides better income opportunities. Over time, three major issues emerge related to the rise in fares, increased grid stress due to an increase in load demand for charging, and unsystematic disposal of lead-acid batteries. Presently, architectures for the charging station are available in the market but they are based on-grid supply which results in additional stress on the existing grid. In this proposed work a dedicated real-time socio-economic case study has been done to explore issues at the ground level to develop a photovoltaic (PV) based off-grid battery charging & swapping station (BCSS) and define a new category of E-rickshaw. The BCSS is proposed keeping objectives in mind to increase the return on investment (ROI) of both E-rickshaw owners by defining new a category & charging stations with fast recovery on the initial investments.