Smart Charging Impact Analysis using Clustering Methods and Real-world Distribution Feeders

TL;DR

This paper evaluates how smart charging strategies like TOU and Load Balancing can mitigate EV impact on power distribution networks, reducing upgrade costs and maintaining reliability through analysis of real-world feeders.

Contribution

It compares the effectiveness of TOU and Load Balancing strategies on real feeders using clustering and load flow analysis, highlighting cost savings and performance benefits.

Findings

Both strategies reduce infrastructure upgrade needs.

Load Balancing outperforms TOU at high customer enrollment.

Smart charging supports EV integration with minimal network upgrades.

Abstract

The anticipated widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) necessitates a critical evaluation of existing power distribution infrastructures, as EV integration imposes additional stress on distribution networks that can lead to component overloading and power quality degradation. Implementing smart charging mechanisms can mitigate these adverse effects and defer or even avoid upgrades. This study assesses the performance of two smart charging strategies - Time of Use (TOU) pricing and Load Balancing (LB) on seven representative real-world feeders identified using k-means clustering. A time series-based steady-state load flow analysis was conducted on these feeders to simulate the impact of EV charging under both strategies across four different EV enrollment scenarios and three representative days to capture seasonal load characteristics. A grid upgrade strategy has been proposed to strengthen the power grid to support EV integration with minimal cost. Results demonstrate that both TOU and LB strategies effectively manage the additional EV load with reduced upgrade requirement and cost to existing infrastructure compared to the case without smart charging strategies and LB outperforms TOU when the customer enrollment levels are high. These findings support the viability of smart charging in facilitating EV integration while maintaining distribution network reliability and reducing investment cost.