Investigation of Distribution Transformer Loss of Life in Electric Vehicles Parking Lot Integrated System

Abstract

Nowadays, the operation of the smart distribution system (SDS) is more complicated with the penetration of electric vehicles (EVs), due to EVs’ uncertainties as well as the capability of vehicle-to-grid (V2G). On the other hand, distribution transformers (DTs) which have to meet the demand of EVs are one of the essential components of SDS; indeed, their failure can lead to irreparable damage. The cause of most of these failures is overloading and high ambient temperature. The overloading increases the temperature of the various parts of the DTs, especially hot spot temperature (HST). Increasing this temperature reduces the nominal life of the DTs. With a high number of EVs in the future, and as a consequence high energy demand which has not been taken into account in proper operating program, it could lead to the overloading of DTs. So, in this paper, the loss of life (LOL) of a DT that feeds the residential loads and an EV parking lot (EV PL) is investigated. The maximization of the profit of the distribution system operator (DSO) is considered in two different parts i.e. with/without the appropriate operation coefficient (OC) of DT. Also, two different scenarios are applied i.e. charging mode (CM) of EVs and charging/discharging mode (CDM) of EVs. The results show that if the OC is not properly considered, the LOL of the transformers will be significantly high, implying a higher total ownership cost.