Economic Impact of Distribution Grid Operation Scenarios for the Integration of Electric Vehicles

Electric Vehicles (EVs) will become an important part of the transport system in Europe and can thus create a number of benefits in term of oil dependence reduction, air quality improvement and trade balance enhancement. However, they can also become a burden for distribution system operator (DSOs) if they charge in an uncontrolled way. In addition, the increasing deployment of renewable energy sources (RES) and other distributed energy resources (DER) are making the distribution grid planning more complicated than in the past, when consumers were considered to be passive elements and grid was dimensioned to meet peak demand. PlanGridEV project proposes new planning procedures, which take into account the possibility to manage consumers’ electricity demand, including the charging process of EVs, both to better integrate DER and to more efficiently plan the investments in the distribution grid. The planning rules will be validated by carrying out four test beds, which will serve as an input for assessing the economic performance of four scenarios, representing four theoretical alternatives for distribution grid planning. Different services that EVs can provide to DSOs and other actors in the e-mobility ecosystem will be analysed in each scenario. Then, a grid planning tool will be developed to help DSOs consider EVs and demand and other demand response (DR) capabilities when planning distribution grid extension.