Charging electric vehicles using regenerated energy from urban railways

Nowadays transport system is one of the most important producers of air pollution in cities. Urban railways and electric vehicle will play a fundamental role to accomplish the sustainability of cities. Urban railways are right now an efficient transport method. However it is necessary to continue improving its energy efficiency in view of the demand growth. On the other hand, electric vehicles need a charging infrastructure to support its penetration in the market. In this context, the use of the railway electrical infrastructure to charge electric vehicles could bring several benefits. First of all, there is a cost reduction effect because of the use of an existing installation. Besides, part of the regenerated energy that cannot be accepted by other trains can be used to charge electric vehicles, improving the efficiency of the global system. In this paper, a simulation study assesses the global energy savings that can be obtained using railway electrical infrastructure to charge electric vehicles.