Using Electric Vehicles and Demand Side Response to Unlock Distribution Network Flexibility

The transportation sector is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. This has encouraged governments worldwide to fund the development of ultra-low carbon emission vehicles and replace internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles with electric vehicles (EVs). Among EV drivers, ‘range anxiety’ is one of the main issues resulting from long charging durations. The reduction of charging duration by the introduction of DC fast/rapid charging stations is widely discussed in the literature. However, high charging demands due to fast charging stations may cause some challenges for power networks. In this paper, the impacts of different types of fast chargers on a UK generic distribution network are investigated. The most suitable and robust connection points of the network where fast chargers can be deployed are identified without affecting the stability and security of the system. The main findings show that network losses increase, voltages operate beyond strict limits, and system equipment becomes overloaded with increased fast charging activities in the network. Therefore, critical network points are reinforced with distributed generation units (DG) and static var compensator (SVC) devices to improve the system reliability and mitigate the impacts of such challenges.