FEASIBILITY STUDY OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES INTEGRATION IN RWANDA DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Purpose: This paper investigates the impacts of electric vehicles integration in Rwandan Power system by assessing harmonic distortion, power loss, system loading, and voltage stability. Methodology: Distribution network test was conducted on 34 buses taken from KINIGI feeder of Camp Belge substation in northern corridor of nation grid by using ETAP software. Findings: The test came up with locating electric vehicles charging stations by taking into account the total harmonic distortion, transformer loading, voltage sensibility factor and the power loss where 4, 1, 2, 2, and 1 vehicles are located at buses 19, 20, 23, 25, and 26 respectively. The study determined the location of charging stations to enhance technical perspectives while implementing policies as policy maker motivates the public to shift from diesel powered EV to mitigate greenhouse gases emissions and fuel resources scarcity. Recommendations: The number of integrated EVs has been shown to be low compared to the demand for EVs and the industry's annual target of 1000 EVs per year. This requires a utility to manage the proposed load increase by planning for the power generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure. In addition, EV charging stations generate current and voltage harmonics that affect negatively electrical equipment, nearby loads, and neighboring telecommunications lines. Harmonic filtering devices such as RHS, SC and hybrid devices built on RHS and SC are required in the distribution network to eliminate the effects generated by the harmonics.