Airport and Energy Infrastructure Requirements for Charging Plug-In-Hybrid-Electric Aircraft (PHEA)

Abstract

The new class of Plug-In Hybrid-Electric Aircraft (PHEA) developed in EXACT has substantial impacts on airport infrastructure. An initial key issue is to estimate peak power demand, the load profile over a typical operating day and the overall energy requirements under different traffic scenarios. We use a forecast of traffic on a typical operating day in 2050 at Hamburg Airport, which represents a medium-sized airport with a high proportion of flight movements where conventional aircraft could be replaced by PHEA. The scenarios include different PHEA adoption rates, ranging from 50% in smaller aircraft categories only (S1) to a full adoption in all seat classes up to 250 seats in 2050 (S5). Our analysis shows that in a scenario where all conventional aircraft are replaced by PHEA, the peak power demand can be as high as 165 MW. The peak power demand occurs for relatively short periods of time, correlating with peak traffic times during the day. Compared to this, charging of aircraft at the airport overnight is relatively modest at around 36 MW of constant power. The total annual electricity demand can amount to more than 700 GWh per year in a scenario where all aircraft up to 250 seats are replaced by PHEA by 2050.