Impact of smart EV charging on grid network with PV and BESS : Case study for Hammarby Sjöstad

Abstract: The transition in the transport sector by the integration of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) brings a new challenge for the system operators to ensure the balance between supply and demand. The installation of new EV charges poses a surge in electricity demand in the coming years which jeopardizes the grid reliability and stability. With the new EV policies in place, Sweden will have a huge growth of BEVs and the associated charging infrastructures. The challenges faced by the electricity transmission and distribution will depend on the type and smart capability of the infrastructure. Therefore, research is conducted to analyze the impacts of the mix of public and private residential EV charging and how smart charging can help in mitigating the impacts. This thesis studies the impact of the mix of private residential and public EV chargers on the power network of Hammarby Sjöstad, a neighborhood of Stockholm. Four substations out of 20 corresponding to the areas with the highest proportion in the residential and commercial sectors in the network were chosen for the study and power flow analysis was carried out to analyze the impacts in the year 2025. EV chargers were categorized into public and private residential chargers. The public chargers had rated power of 22 kW each while residential chargers were rated at 3.68 kW each. EVs can behave as energy vectors, and it is possible to optimize their charging as a part of demand-side management which includes peak shaving or shifting. Optimizing EV charging was treated as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem to schedule EV charging for both reducing losses and the cost of electricity import from the grid. Two optimization strategies were investigated to analyze their potential to reduce the peaks due to uncontrolled charging. Renewable energy generation from solar PVs integrated with EV chargers reduces the import of electricity from the grid during the day which not only reduced the losses but also the cost of importing electricity from the grid. The effect of intermittency of solar PV generation was reduced by implementing BESS. At low price periods, the BESS was charged using the excess PV power and at higher price periods, the BESS was discharged. Three scenarios were developed, where the Reference scenario refers to the base case without PV and BESS, With PV scenario considered only PV generation while With PVBESS scenario considered the implementation of BESS with PV. Three test cases were simulated for each of the scenarios, and it was found that by the implementation of smart charging, the losses in the network reduce by 35.5% and it also significantly reduced the losses in all the other scenarios. Implementation of smart charging reduced the cost of electricity import from the grid by 4.3%. The integration of PV generation led to a 7% further reduction in the losses and cost of electricity import as compared to the Reference scenario. The integration of BESS increased the losses in the network, but it also enhanced the self-consumption of PV power. The implementation of smart charging not only reduces the losses and costs of import but will lead to savings in grid reinforcement costs.