Plug-In Electric Vehicle Charging Impacts on Power Systems

A Thesis Presented to ABB Corporate Research and Chalmers University of Technology Academic Faculty


ABSTRACT
Individual ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) driven vehicles are essential components of life in nations across the world. However, volatility in petroleum prices, security concerns associated with imported oil and anthropogenic climate change contribute to increasing interest in alternative vehicle technologies that are more efficient than „traditional‟ car concepts.
For a number of advantages they offer, PEVs (Plug-In Electric Vehicles) are taking center stage in the current developments to resolve impacts of ICEs in the transportation industry. If this paradigm shifts from conventional oil fueled to grid supplied transportation is to take place, there will be a significant challenges and opportunities waiting for both automobile industries, oil industries and power supply industries. The goal of this thesis is therefore to develop probabilistic models that can quantify charging patterns of PEVs to allow utilities to evaluate their increasing charging impacts on the power systems.
The heart of this diploma work can be split into two parts. The first is the probabilistic models themselves. Given any power systems of study, the outputs from these models can be used with base load profiles to investigate impacts on that system. Two major probabilistic models are developed. The first model quantifies charging patters of PEVs at fast charging station, which are the future equivalents of present petrol filing stations.
Four sub-models are developed that play with tuning different input parameters to help us have a broader understanding of fast charging patterns. A number of interesting outputs including load profiles, distribution of SOC (State of charge), and distribution of required number poles, distribution of number of charging per day and similar other distribution are generated f from the fast charging models. The second important models are the model that quantifies residential charging patterns of PEVs. Similar to fast charging models, a number of outputs including load profiles, SOC distribution, parking and charging time interval are among the important.
The second important part is impact analysis of PEV fast charging on a given power system. Three fast charging stations are deployed in Västerås primary distribution network to study impacts PEV fast charging on system bus voltage. Similarly PEV residential charging models are deploying PEVs in Västerås secondary distribution network to study impacts of residential charging on transformer loading, hotspot temperature variation and accelerated aging factor profiles.

Author: Yunus, Kalid Jemal