Increasing hosting capacity of low-voltage distribution network using smart charging based on local and dynamic capacity limits

Abstract

While the Municipality of Amsterdam wants to expand the electric vehicle public charging infrastructure to reach carbon-neutral objectives, the Distribution System Operator cannot allow new charging stations where low-voltage transformers are reaching their maximum capacity. To solve this situation, a smart charging project called Flexpower is being tested in some districts. Charging power is limited during peak times to avoid grid congestion and, therefore, enable the expansion of charging infrastructure while deferring grid investments. This work simulates the implementation of the Flexpower strategy with high penetration of electric vehicles, considering dynamic and local power limits, to assess the impact on both the satisfaction of electric vehicle users and the business model of the Charging Point Operator. A stochastic approach, based on Gaussian Mixture Models, has been used to model different profiles of electric vehicle users using data from the Amsterdam public electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Several key performance indicators have been defined to assess the impact of such charging limitations on the different stakeholders. The results show that, while Amsterdam’s existing public charging infrastructure can host just twice the current electric vehicle demand, the application of Flexpower will enable the growth in charging stations without requiring grid upgrades. Even with 7 times more charging sessions, Flexpower could provide a power peak reduction of 57% while supplying 98% of the total energy required by electric vehicle users

The author Marc Cañigueral has been awarded a PhD grant (Ref. FPU18/03626) by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture through the Training program for Academic Staff (FPU program). This work has been carried out in the scope of a research collaboration between the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) and the University of Girona (UdG) during a 3-month stay in Amsterdam funded by the mobility grant EST22/00891 of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture . The authors also want to acknowledge the support received by the Municipality of Amsterdam and the Flexpower team, especially Hugo Niesing. This work has been partially developed in the framework of the project RESCHOOL, which received funding from the Horizon Europe program under the grant agreement n.101096490

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