Reliability assessment of power systems considering the large-scale PHEV integration

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) have established themselves as achievable, near-term technology options capable of competing with internal combustion engine vehicles. The key concern regards the sufficiency and viability of the power infrastructure with large-scale PHEV integration. Increasing the number of PHEVs causes the power grid to run at a high risk level. The approach proposed in this paper carries out the reliability evaluation of existing power system infrastructures at various PHEV penetration levels. Reliability indices, as quantitative parameters, can be interpreted easily to penalty costs for interruption and energy not supplied. In this paper, various PHEV penetration levels are simulated, and reliability indices are calculated to evaluate the impact of PHEVs on the reliability of power systems. The results show that the existing power system infrastructure is not robust enough for higher penetration levels.