Operating strategies for a Regional Airport to challenge future hybrid-electric aircraft systems

This paper presents promising scenarios for the infrastructure expansion of a regional airport during the transition to the electrification of aviation. Realistic statements regarding the development trends at airport infrastructures are enabled using a simulation model. Precise data from two regional partner airports and designs of an ATR 42-600 regional hybrid-electric aircraft from the GENESIS project are used. Charging these designed aircraft creates new challenges for the airport's energy supply. This also plays a decisive role due to rising electricity prices and requires a well-founded concept to reduce emissions and ensure economic efficiency. A simulation model is developed to analyze the possible expansion of the electrical infrastructure through photovoltaic parks, wind farms, and a stationary battery storage system on the ground. Airport operations should consider the short ground times of regional aircraft, which will be analyzed in a model. Suitable supply technologies for energy storage on-ground, grid connection, and energy transmission to the aircraft were included in the analysis. In addition, the system's energy efficiency will be improved with an on-site battery. Further studies were carried out on more detailed models of the photovoltaic park and a wind farm. The tilt angle of the photovoltaic system modules was varied to optimize energy generation. The height and tilt angle of the wind turbines were also considered for the wind farms. The simulations were set up in MATLAB Simulink and simulated over a day/month/year. The simulation model shows the energy requirements that regional airports will face due to hybrid-electric aircraft and the operating strategies that could be of interest to airport operations in the future.