Investigating the impacts of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on distribution congestion

Smart grids are envisioned to support large penetrations of electrical vehicles driven by economical and environmental signals. Nevertheless, distribution system operators are becoming concerned about distribution congestion that may occur in the network with multiple domestic plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) charging. Therefore, investigating the impacts of high PHEV penetration levels on the performance of distribution networks seems to be essential for system operators and planners. Doing so, in this paper, PHEV characteristics are precisely extracted from valid published reports and surveys. Accordingly, a comprehensive model for investigating the impacts of different PHEV penetration levels on distribution systems for a single year and upcoming years is developed. The proposed model is applied to the IEEE 34-node test feeder, and PHEV impacts on the distribution network characteristics are reported. The results show distribution congestion occurrence for more than 11% PHEV penetration level.