Impact of EV charging strategies on peak demand reduction and load factor improvement

Abstract

A rapid growth in Electric Vehicle (EV) penetration is expected in the near future. EV presents economic and environmental advantages over traditional gasoline vehicles. However, a number of EVs, if charged simultaneously, may pose some serious challenges for electric utilities especially at the distribution level. This paper investigates selected EV charging strategies to mitigate the adverse effect of charging EV on the peak demand. These charging strategies are implemented for different EV penetration levels and charging modes. Simulation results indicate that EV charging time, charging power and penetration levels are significant factors impacting system peak load. Examining different EV charging strategies can help reduce the negative impact of EV penetration on the peak demand and thereby improve system load factor.