Impact of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles
on Power Distribution Networks
Wang Jian1,2 Wu Kuihua Liu Zhizhen1
1 1
Institute of EPRI Institute of
Electrical En- Jinan, China Electrical En-
gineering wukuihua gineering
Shandong @126.com Shandong
University University
Jinan, China Jinan, China
Wangjian4509 liuzhizhen
@126.com @sdu.edu.cn
AbstractEver-increasing oil prices, carbon con-
straints, resource shortage and incentives are
driving the development of plug-in hybrid electric
vehicles (PHEVs). PHEVs, which present envi-
ronmental and energy security advantages versus
conventional vehicles with combustion engine, will
be vital to smart grids in the near future. As the
number of them increases, PHEVs will have a huge
impact on power grid. In this study, it is shown
that uncoordinated charging of PHEVs on the
grid will produce series of problems, while coordi-
nated charging can improve the load profile. An
analysis is performed for a power grid to demon-
strate the impacts of coordination of charging,
considering charging time, charging patterns and
various levels of PHEV penetration.
Keywords-Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles;
power distribution networks; coordinated charging
I. I. INTRODUCTION
If we want to achieve the goal of unit GDP
carbon dioxide emissions reduced by 40%-50%
for 2005, by 2020, there will be great importance
attached to the transportation sector. As the sec-
tor, the major source of oil consumption, ac-
counts for 15.9% of all the world green-house
emission and much higher in our country. The
urge for energy security of supply, air quality
improvement and carbon dioxide emissions re-
duction are pressing manufacturers to act on the
road transportation sector, introducing more effi-
978-1-4577-0365-2/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE 1618
Wang Feng2 Zhao Yi2
2 2
Shandong Su- Shandong Su-
pervision and pervision and
Inspection Inspection
Institute for Institute for
Product Quality Product Quality
Jinan, China Jinan, China
wfzj0531 zhaoyi6606
@sina.com @163.com
cient vehicles on the market. Plug-in electric ve-
hicles (PEV), including battery electric vehicles
(BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles
(PHEV), are expected to reduce tailpipe emis-
sions as well as the total emissions. PHEVs,
which are different from BEVs, are defined as
vehicles that can use both fuel and electricity for
population, and can be recharged by plugging
into the grid. Global leading car manufactures
have already spent a large amount of time and
energy in the development and industrialization
of EVs. Some EVs are already on the market,
such as the General Motors Volt, Toyota Prius,
Honda Insight, Tesla Roadster, Mitsubishi
i-MiEV and others. In China, BYD, CHERY,
New-Ri and WANXIANG EV CO.,LTD all
quicken the industrialization of EVs. There are
some EVs on the market , including the Olympic
electric bus, named Lucky Cloud, BYD F3DM,
CHERY M1-V1 ,etc.
More attention on EVs has been paid pre-
viously in the investigations on the economic and
environmental influence [1-4], and the battery
technology [5-7], whereas little analysis has been
gained on the impact of EVs on the grid. As the
penetration of PHEVs becomes higher and higher,
the potential effect on the grid, especially the
distribution grid, will be constantly arising.
This paper investigates the impact of PHEVs
charging on the distribution grid, considering
several scenarios of PHEV. It is shown that coor-
dinated charging of PHEVs through time control B. PHEVs Penetration
and other communication system is likely to im- The number of PHEVs and penetration has a
prove the load curve. drastic impact on the distribution grid. In this
paper, market penetration of PHEVs is consi-
II. MODEL AND ASSUMPTIONS
dered as follows:
A. Charging Assumptions
For modeling of PHEV charging loads realis- TABLE II. PHEVS PENETRATION

tically, the battery capacities are important to Type Market Penetration

obtain charging curves. Table I lists the PHEV
charge level. According to the China actual situa-
tion, and under the charging occurring at home
condition, it is possible to charge the vehicles at
220 volts AC with 2.5mm2 wires section(16 A
circuit current) that would be about 3.0kW or
2
with 4mm wires section (25 A circuit cur-
rent)and that would be 5.0kW, supposing the
power factor is 0.9[8,9]. Fast charging is realized
at charging station or through a charger in a car
park, as the current is much larger than the
maximum current at home. A fast charging pow-
er profile of 9.5kW is assumed, based on the ref-
erence example of the Olympic electric charging
station.
Low Penetration 5%
Medium Penetration 10%
High Penetration 20%
The levels of PHEVs penetration have been
studied in Axsen and Kurani [8] and Taylor et al.
[9]. The development of PHEVs in Europe is
growing faster than that of China. To analyze the
impacts in load profiles, three scenarios for
PHEVs charging were considered. As is shown
in this table, PHEVs could reach a maximum of
20% vehicle fleet.
The percentage of charging type occurring at
each hour is given in this paper, as shown in
Fig.1.

TABLE I. PHEV CHARGE LEVELS

Type Power Level

220V AC 3.0kW
220V AC 5.0kW
380V AC 9.5kW
As many companies have given their EVs
cattery specification as 16kWh, which is suffi-
cient to run 160km and will likely dominate the
Figure 1. THE PERCENTAGE OF CHARGING TYPE
market initially, at the Auto Expo 2010 in New
Delhi, a 16kWh battery capacity is selected in
Histogram with different colors denotes the
this study.
period time when each type of charging occurs.
In actual life, most vehicles will have batte- For each charging period which is studied in this
ries that have at least slightly different charging paper, the hourly additional load is the product of
profiles [10], and because it is very unlikely that the number of PHEVs charged and the hourly
all consumers use the same type of battery. Be- demand from the curve.
sides, the effect of battery aging on the impact of
C. Charging Periods
PHEV charging profile should also be studied in
Suppose the batteries of the vehicles would
the future.
be charged at home, through plugging in to an
outlet. Fig.2 represents the percentage of vehicles
charged each hour. It is shown that PHEVs are

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often charged during evening and night. If con-
sidering the charging station circumstances, there
is a small percentage of vehicles charged from
10:00am to 3:00pm as depicted in fig.2. Based on
this figure, three important charging periods are
proposed. The evening period, PHEV charging
coinciding with much of the peak residential
hours from 6:00pm to 10:00pm, should be im-
posed great importance on [12, 13]. The off-peak
period extends from 10:00pm until 7:00am. The
last period, during which PHEVs could be re-
charged from the three-phase AC mains or by the
on-board charger, begins from 10:00am till
15:00pm.
Figure 2. DAILY CHARGE PROFILE
III. IMPACT ANALYSIS
A. Load Profiles
Fig.3 and fig.4 shows the hourly load profiles
of some area of China electric system. Each
curve in fig.3 illustrates a typical daily load pro-
files from four different seasons in 2009. From
the load curve, we can see winter is typically
peak season for heating.
Figure 3. A TYPICAL DAILY LOAD PROFILE IN 2009
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Based on the forecasting results of Research
on the Power Demand forecasting and Load
Characteristic of Shandong, annual comsump-
tion will be increasing at a rate of 11.8% during
the twelfth five-year period , and the increasing
rate will become 6.5% for demand during the
thirteen five-year period. Fig.4 represents the
load profile of different seasons in 2020.
Figure 4. A TYPICAL DAILY LOAD PROFILE IN 2020
As shown, the forecasting daily load profiles
of 2020 are considered to have the same shape
with that of the year 2009. The minimum demand
occurs in the early morning with annual mini-
mum occurring generally in spring or autumn
seasons. It is also illustrated that the annual
maximum demand is highest in winter, this load
profile is considered for the following analysis.
In other words, a PHEV load will be added to the
typical load curve of winter.
B. Uncoordinated Charging
The simplest charging plan is uncoordinated
charging, which is such a charging way that
PHEVs can be charged any time (usually during
peak hours), without considering the price of
electricity or other factors. Because scheduling
the charging of the batteries to optimize the grid
should not be legitimately considered by the ve-
hicle owners. On the contrary, for convenience,
people inclines to start charging immediately as
soon as an electric outlet is available, for in-
stance, the only time returning at home from
work or during office hour.
Assuming 27% PHEVs are recharged during
peak hours , and 12% PHEVs during the noon,
three penetration levels(5%, 10%, 20%) and two
charging rates(3.0kW, 5.0kW) are also consi-
dered in this analysis.
(a)
(b)
Figure 5. Load profile for uncoordinated charging with 5,
10, 20% penetration level; (a)slowcharging(6:00pm-
10:00pm), (b)fast charging (10:00am-3:00pm)
If a large number of PHEV charging occur
during the same time, especially the time vehicle
owners first returning home, then the peak may
be beyond the limits of the grid.
As expected, the uncoordinated charging
would be disastrous to the grid.
C. Coordinated Charging
Uncoordinated charging of PHEVs on the
grid will produce series of problems, while coor-
dinated charging can improve the load profile.
An analysis is performed for a power grid to
demonstrate the impacts of coordination of
charging, considering charging time, charging
patterns and various levels of PHEV penetration.
1621
Referring to fig.6, it can be seen that electric
energy, which has been wasted, could be effec-
tively used.
Figure 6. LOAD PROFILE FOR COORDINATED CHARGING
WITH 5, 10, 20% PENETRATION LEVEL
The results showed that the best time from
the grids view point would be at night during
off-peak hours, as the off-peak charging would
be more efficient in terms of grid stress and
energy costs.
By all kinds of incentives, such as the peak
and off-peak TOU price, and policy guidance,
PHEV charging is uniformly distributed over the
appropriate charging zones. As proved, this ap-
proach improves the load curve and has positive
effects on the distribution grid.
IV. CONCLUSION
The goal of this paper was to highlight impact
of PHEVs on power distribution networks, espe-
cially the load profile. The impact of different
charging periods, penetration levels, charging
rates have been studied. By comparison, it is
concluded that coordinated charging can improve
the load profile.
It would be interesting to investigate new
charging scheduling control and methods. To
give a more accurate analysis of the drivers be-
havior, it would be also interesting to conduct
studies under purely stochastic models [14]. Be-
sides, V2G (vehicle-to-grid) functionality is not
expected in the first generation of PHEVs.
Hence, V2G, distributed generation characteris-
tics [15], is not considered in this paper, but
should be studied in the near future.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are thankful to Mr. Wu from
EPRI, for providing necessary information and
help for this paper.

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