Grid reactive voltage regulation and cost optimization for electric vehicle penetration in power network

Abstract

Expecting large electric vehicle (EV) usage in the future due to environmental issues, state subsidies, and incentives, the impact of EV charging on the power grid is required to be closely analyzed and studied for power quality, stability, and planning of infrastructure. When a large number of energy storage batteries are connected to the grid as a capacitive load the power factor of the power grid is inevitably reduced, causing power losses and voltage instability. In this work large-scale 18K EV charging model is implemented on IEEE 33 network. Optimization methods are described to search for the location of nodes that are affected most due to EV charging in terms of power losses and voltage instability of the network. Followed by optimized reactive power injection magnitude and time duration of reactive power at the identified nodes. It is shown that power losses are reduced and voltage stability is improved in the grid, which also complements the reduction in EV charging cost. The result will be useful for EV charging stations infrastructure planning, grid stabilization, and reducing EV charging costs.