Network Security Perspectives of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are becoming more popular. The batteries of these electric vehicles may be charged from a standard outlet at home. These extra electrical loads have several impacts on distribution networks. This paper presents a methodology to quantify the impact that charging of different penetration levels of PHEVs may have on the security of distribution network. The network security is reflected through the well-known N-1 contingency analysis before and after charging PHEVs at home. The proposed methodology is applied to a realistic distribution network. The results show that network security may be remarkably degraded as the penetration of PHEVs increases. However, the extent of network security degradation largely depends on the charging period of PHEVs. As revealed by the results, daytime charging, from hour 06:00 to 14:00, may have the most adverse effect on the network security.