Impacts of plug-in electric vehicles charging on low voltage distribution network

It is expected that the number of electric vehicles will increase significantly worldwide. Although, this increase represents an environmental advantage. Charging of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) considers a challenge for the electric utilities. In this paper, the charging impact of PEVs on a benchmark low voltage (LV) grid has been studied. The LV network used as a case study is developed by the EU project “Microgrids”. Two charging scenarios have been investigated in this paper, 1) uncontrolled charging, and 2) Indirect controlled charging with Time of Use (TOU) pricing. In each scenario, different penetration levels of PEVs have been studied (e.g., 20 %, 30%, and 50%). The effects of PEVs charging on transformer loading, feeders loading, and voltages at the endpoints of the feeders have been investigated. 24-hour time-series simulations have been used in the study. The results demonstrate that with the use of indirect controlled charging a higher number of PEVs can be charged from the distribution network without infrastructure upgrade and for uncontrolled charging infrastructure upgrade will be needed.