## 3 Results
### Energy Consumption and Recharging Sessions  
Figure 6 shows the number of recharging sessions and the energy consumption from the analyzed recharging points from 2021 to 2023. The figure also shows the sessions and the energy consumption on a yearly and monthly basis, respectively. Overall, there were more than 411,800 recharging sessions with an energy consumption of 7936 MWh destined to recharge BEVs. As the number of recharging points expanded in the region, the recharging sessions also increased. Indeed, the number of recharging sessions increased by around 127% from 2021 to 2022, and by around 151% from 2022 to 2023. Considering that the hydropower plants in South Tyrol produced on average around 6000 GWh in the years 2010-2021 [48], the energy consumption from the recharging points corresponds to 0.04% of the hydro production.  
Figure 6: Overall, yearly, and monthly number of sessions (**top**) and energy consumption (**bottom**) from recharging points in Trentino–South Tyrol, classified by type of maximum power output, \(P\).  
As expected, most of the recharging sessions come from AC recharging points, since most of the available recharging points belong to this category. Nonetheless, the recharging sessions from DC recharging points also increased over the analyzed period as the availability of such points is also higher, getting closer to the number of sessions from AC recharging points.  
In contrast to the number of sessions, the energy consumption from AC and DC recharging points is almost the same. The energy consumption in 2022 was 157% higher than in 2021, while the energy consumption in 2023 was around 170% higher than the previous year. However, in 2023, the DC recharging points surpassed the energy consumption from AC ones. By comparing the expansion of installed AC and DC recharging points in terms of energy consumption, installing 210 DC recharging points leads to a similar impact on the electric grid as the installation of 760 AC recharging points.  
Looking at the consumption over different seasons (view Figure 7), there was a higher energy demand during summer. Moreover, the consumption decreased during the cold seasons, excepting December, in which the consumption was closer or higher than in August. The lowest consumption values were reached in February and March, while the highest were reached in August and December. The reason for this seasonality is probably the tourism presence in Trentino-South Tyrol, which is highest in August and around Christmas.  
Figure 8 shows the overall energy consumption from the recharging points installed in each municipality of the analyzed region (left), and the energy consumption from the municipalities with the highest consumption, plus the number of available recharging points (right). The province of South Tyrol achieved 72% of the consumption, which is linked to the higher availability of DC recharging points in this territory.  
Nonetheless, most of the energy consumption comes from large municipalities in both provinces, as they usually have more recharging points available for residents and tourists than the small ones. However, in some municipalities, the energy consumption is higher, despite the low availability of recharging points. This is the case in municipalities such as Vipiteno and Riva del Garda, which are touristic locations in South Tyrol and Trentino, respectively. Hence, by calculating the average energy consumption per recharging point in each municipality (view Figure 8--Bottom), it results in higher consumption from municipalities with touristic locations, but also from municipalities with roads that are between such locations.  
Figure 7: Monthly consumption from the analyzed recharging points from 2021 to 2023, divided by year.