Impact of Residential PHEV Charging on Utility Distribution Networks and its Mitigation

The growth of Electric Vehicles (EVs) has been a significant trend in recent years, driven by various factors such as environmental concerns, government incentives, advances in technology, and changing consumer preferences. Among EVs, adoption of Plug-in Hybrid EVs (PHEVs) has been significant in recent years, as they offer a balance between electric and Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) powertrains. The widespread PHEVs and the corresponding increase in EV charging infrastructure can have both positive and negative impacts on the distribution network (DN). DN operators and utilities are actively studying and implementing measures to ensure the smooth integration of EV charging load demand while maintaining grid stability and reliability. For serving the same purpose, assessment of residential single-phase AC charging with SAEJ1772 standard of about 1500 PHEVs belonging to more than 800 U.S residents is carried out using a realistic data of a U.S based transportation survey named National Household Travel Survey (NHTS). To begin with, investigations on the charging impact of PHEVs are done by modelling them using certain parameters. Furthermore, to alleviate the impact, an Improved Grey Wolf Optimization (IGWO) algorithm is used for optimally placing the right sized Distributed Generators (DGs) with the objective to reduce power losses in the DN. The complete assessment is done on a 240-bus real distribution grid located in the Midwest U.S. The results validate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology by improving the bus voltage profiles and minimizing the network power losses.