Assessment of Plug-in Electric Vehicles Charging on Distribution Networks

Abstract

The demand for plug-in electric vehicles has grown rapidly in recent years due to lower operation costs and lower emissions in comparison to conventional, gas-powered vehicles. Despite these benefits, it is essential for utilities to investigate the impact of plug-in electric vehicles in order to protect utility system components, especially distribution level networks. Since the operation, plugging timing and energy consumption of these vehicles is subject to uncertainty; we must resort to use probabilistic tools. As a consequence a natural way to investigate the impact of plug-in electric vehicles on distribution networks is by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Since it is of paramount importance to set up scenarios as realistically as possible; therefore in this study, a set of real driving behavior data for 34,000 drivers is used. The investigation considers two different types of distribution loads - commercial area loads, and residential area loads, as well as different types of charging behaviors such as charge-at-home-only and charge-at-work-and-home.