Coordinated electric vehicle charging to reduce losses without network impedances

Abstract

This study proposes a method of coordinating electric vehicle charging to reduce losses in a distribution system, using only knowledge of the phase that each charger is connected to. Reducing network losses cuts costs and can be achieved through demand response mechanisms. However, directly minimising losses requires accurate values of the line impedances, which can be difficult to obtain. Flattening load over time and balancing load across phases have both been proposed as alternate solutions which indirectly reduce losses. Here, the practical differences between load flattening and explicitly minimising losses are quantified using simulations of residential charging in European style, three-phase distribution networks. Then, a new smart charging strategy, which incorporates phase balancing as a secondary objective to load flattening, is proposed. This requires only the knowledge of the phase that each load is on and achieves 30–70% of the potential reduction in losses.