Smart Electric Vehicle Charging with Ideal and Practical Communications in Smart Grids

The growing number of electric vehicles (EV) in the automotive market is leading to ever sharper spikes in consumer power demand. Smart EV charging techniques seek to adjust EV charging load to compensate for supply-demand mismatch. However, all schemes are vulnerable to communications inefficiencies. This paper models implications of communications-driven latency in smart EV charging relevant to secondary voltage control in the distribution network. EV charging load and driving pattern data are gathered from verified statistical studies. A smart charging scheme is proposed enabling high EV penetration with no peak load increase and minimal infrastructure additions. Further, it is applicable to all flexible loads and permits power allocation via a number of possible algorithms. A communications structure for this scheme is then developed, and system performance under ideal and practical communications constraints are studied.