Electrifying multimodal public transport with distributed renewable energy (e-REMPT)

Research Project, 2024 – 2025

Promoting electric multimodal transport systems (eMPT) with electric buses and shared micro-mobility holds promising potential for improving efficiency and cutting off emissions of urban transport systems through electrification and synchromodality. However, the current practice is suffering from inadequate charging facilities, neglecting the potential of distributed renewable energy systems (DRES), low operation efficiency and failure to attract sustainable modal shift. These deficiencies are ascribed to the division of optimizing relevant systems solely in different disciplines and lacking interdisciplinary methods for a holistic solution. This project aims to develop cross-discipline innovations for eMPT including: 1) Infrastructure planning methods reconciling DRES and charging facilities with the power grid; 2) Charging scheduling optimizations considering interactions among DRES, charging facilities, transit networks and the power grid; 3) Strategies for promoting the modal shift to eMPT. The outcomes are to minimize capital and operational expenses, and life-cycle emissions of developing eMPT in terms of scientific infrastructure (DRES and charging facilities) and operational optimization, and provide attractive multimodal travel services to attract mode shift, particularly by bridging the gaps in multiple domains for an integrative improvement. The end-users include transport planners, transit and micro-mobility operators and charging service providers who can reduce budgets and emissions to deploy necessary facilities and operate eMPT in an efficient way, as well as various users who can enjoy better multimodal travel services with improved convenience and efficiency. These will ultimately facilitate the fast transition to an efficient, sustainable and equitable transport system.