• The article presents six charging infrastructures for large industrial sites or freight terminals. • A detailed cost model is developed, including cables, transformers, and converters. • Network optimization and Monte Carlo simulations are used for a fair apples-to-apples comparison. • The article analyzes sensitivity to layout, fleet size, and trends in converter prices. • Finally, the article offers recommendations on centralized vs. decentralized and AC distribution vs. DC distribution for infrastructure developers. Electrifying heavy-duty vehicles at large sites requires charging infrastructure designs that balance cost and robustness. This article quantitatively compares six different charging infrastructures, spanning centralized vs. decentralized layouts and AC vs. DC distribution through a case study of a 50-charger site (≈15 MW total). Capital costs (cables, converters, transformers) are modeled, and each design is evaluated under varied spatial layouts, fleet sizes (50–100 chargers), and power-electronics prices in an apples-to-apples comparison. Results show that a decentralized AC architecture with multiple distributed 12/0.4 kV transformers has the lowest cost (€1.77 M), which is 48% lower than the traditional single-transformer AC system (€3.39 M). It is also among the least sensitive to variations in distribution layout. A centralized DC architecture using a conventional transformer (€2.87 M) also outperforms the single-transformer AC design by 15.3%. However, power-electronics-intensive DC architectures (€2.92 M to €3.92 M) are 65% to 121% more expensive than decentralized AC infrastructure. Cost trends, as the fleet grows to 100 chargers, still favor the decentralized AC and centralized DC with a passive transformer. Sensitivity analysis indicates that even with a 50% reduction in converter costs, the decentralized AC solution (€1.36 M) remains the cheapest. That said, two decentralized DC variants (€1.74 M and €1.84 M) emerge as the clear second and third-cheapest options, significantly undercutting the traditional centralized AC design (€2.95 M). These findings underscore that while today’s least-cost design is a decentralized AC network, future large-scale sites may gravitate toward DC-centric or hybrid infrastructures if converter prices fall and on-site renewables/storage rise.
Al-Hysam et al. (Wed,) studied this question.