Smart Charging Strategies for Electric Vehicles: Enhancing Grid Performance and Maximizing the Use of Variable Renewable Energy Resources

Abstract

In this paper the behaviour of a Portuguese typical Low Voltage (LV) grid and the changes in the Portuguese global generation profile were analyzed, in a daily period, regarding different levels of Electric Vehicles (EVs) integration. The impacts provoked by EVs deployment on the network voltage profiles, branches' congestion levels, grid losses and imbalances between phases were evaluated using a three phase power flow. The first part of this work focused on the determination of the maximum share of electric vehicles, defined as the percentage of conventional vehicles replaced by EVs, which can be integrated into the selected grid, without violating the system's technical restrictions and complying with drivers' requests concerning the foreseen use of vehicles. The maximization of the EVs connected to the grid was performed using two distinct charging strategies: dumb charging and smart charging. The second task was to analyse the impacts of both charging approaches (dumb charging and smart charging) on the prevention of wasting renewable energy surplus. For the purpose of this analysis, a 2011 wet and windy day was considered, where large hydro and wind generation exists. For that specific case, in some periods of the day (mainly valley hours), the hydro and wind generation, added to the must run thermal generation units, will surpass the consumption and renewable energy can be wasted. The results obtained for the LV grid were extended to a National level and the changes in