Electric Vehicle Charging Model in the Urban Residential Sector

Electric vehicles (EVs) have become increasingly popular because they are highly efficient and sustainable. However, EVs have intensive electric loads. Their penetrations into the power system pose significant challenges to the operation and control of the power distribution system, such as a voltage drop or transformer overloading. Therefore, grid operators need to prepare for high-level EV penetration into the power system. This study proposes data-driven, parameterized, individual, and aggregated EV charging models to predict EV charging loads in the urban residential sector. Actual EV charging profiles in Saskatchewan, Canada, were analyzed to understand the characteristics of EV charging. A location-based algorithm was developed to identify residential EV charging from raw data. The residential EV charging data were then used to tune the EV charging model parameters, including battery capacity, charging power level, start charging time, daily EV charging energy, and the initial state of charge (SOC). These parameters were modeled by random variables using statistic methods, such as the Burr distribution, the uniform distribution, and the inverse transformation methods. The Monte Carlo method was used for EV charging aggregation. The simulation results show that the proposed models are valid, accurate, and robust. The EV charging models can predict the EV charging loads in various future scenarios, such as different EV numbers, initial SOC, charging levels, and EV types (e.g., electric trucks). The EV charging models can be embedded into load flow studies to evaluate the impact of EV penetration on the power distribution systems, e.g., sustained under voltage, line loss, and transformer overloading. Although the proposed EV charging models are based on Saskatchewan’s situation, the model parameters can be tuned using other actual data so that the proposed model can be widely applied in different cities or countries.