The impact of electric vehicle charging schemes in power system expansion planning

Abstract This study analyzes the impacts of the massive electrification of vehicles on the power system expansion planning and operation for the year 2030. For this purpose, a long-term generation and transmission expansion co-optimization model is used, which captures the hourly operational dynamics of the system by means of the use of representative days. This is relevant since smart charging schemes for Electric Vehicles (EVs) are available, and their benefits are intertwined with the hourly available generation (especially solar), the level of demand, and the transmission capacity. Private and public EVs’ demand is considered through five main scenarios, which differ in the number of EVs and the charging strategies used (i.e., upon-arrival charging or smart charging). The analysis is illustrated using the Chilean power grid. The numerical results show that a massive penetration of EVs in the Chilean power generation system will heavily encourage solar power capacity investments. Furthermore, smart charging allows for an additional increase in the solar power installed, leading (in the Chilean case) to an extra 2.4% increase in solar power generation and an additional 2.5% decrease in fossil fuel-based generation, which was commonly used to offer flexibility to the system. These effects are diminished if a high-enough level of solar power is not feasible. In addition, some sensitivity analyses are made in order to identify the specific influences of some of the model parameters.