Analysis of Integration of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles in the Distribution Grid

The new generation of cars are so-called Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) which has the grid connection capability. By the introduction of these vehicles, the grid issues will be connected to the private car transportation sector for the first time. The cars from the gird perspective can be considered as a regular load with certain power factor. The effects of this type of new load in distribution grid are studied in this thesis. By modelling the cars as regular load, the effects of the cars in three distinct areas in Stockholm are investigated. The car number in each area is estimated based on the population and commercial density of electricity consumption in the three areas. Afterward, the average electricity consumption by the cars in one day is distributed among 24 hours of the day with peak load in the studied year. This distribution is done by two regulated and unregulated methods. The regulated method is based on the desired pattern of electricity consumption of PHEVs by vehicle owners. On the other hand, the regulated pattern is designed based on encouragement of the car owners to consume electricity for charging their car batteries at low-power hours of day (usually midnight hours). The power system from high voltage lines in Sweden down to 11 kV substations in Stockholm simulated in PSS/E software has been used in this study. The automation program (written in Python) is run in order to get the output report (voltage variation and losses) of the load flow calculations for different hours of day by adding the required power for PHEVs both by regulated and unregulated patterns. The results show the possibility of introducing growing number of cars till year 2050 in each area with existing grid infrastructures. Moreover, the number of cars, yearly and daily electric consumption for PHEVs in pure electric mode are shown in this project and the effects of regulated electricity consumption are investigated. It is concluded that since the car number is estimated based on the population, the areas with higher residential characteristics are more problematic for integration of PHEVs from capacity point of view. Moreover, by regulating the charging pattern of PHEVs, the higher number of PHEVs can be integrated to the grid with the existing infrastructures. In addition, the losses have been decreased in regulated pattern in comparison with unregulated pattern with the same power consumption. The voltage in different substations is within the standard boundaries by adding 100 percent of PHEVs load for both regulated and unregulated patterns in all three areas