Electrification of urban road traffic: a reliability analysis of traction power supply for electric road systems

The electric road system (ERS) is an emerging technology to support decarbonization of heavy goods vehicles. The reliability of the traction power supply system (TPSS) for an electric road is a key consideration in ERS planning and maintenance, but since the development of ERS is still at its early stage, the reliability study of different ERS systems has not been fully researched. This paper fills this research gap. It first analyses the potential operation risks of three different ERS systems using the failure mode and effect analysis method. Then, a fault tree model is built to analyse the overall reliability of the traction power supply system of each of the three ERS types and to identify the weak links. Furthermore, the overall failure rate and reliability indicators are obtained by combining the possible failures of both the electric and non-electric components of the TPSS. Finally, based on the analysis of the potential risks and the corresponding reliability indicators, the advantages and disadvantages of different ERS solutions and the future development prospects are discussed.