Load shift potential of electric vehicles in Europe

• Examination of six European mobility studies to display load shift potential.
• Country-specific charging load curves of electric vehicles.
• Possibility to charge at the work place significant for load shift potential.
• At least 45% vehicle availability at home or at the work place during the day.
• Big potential for load shifting through controlled charging.

Many governments highly encourage electric mobility today, aiming at a high market penetration. This development would bring forth an impact on the energy system, which strongly depends on the driving and charging behavior of the users. While an uncontrolled immediate charging might strain the local grid and/or higher peak loads, there are benefits to be gained by a controlled charging. We examine six European mobility studies in order to display the effects of controlled and uncontrolled unidirectional charging. Taking into account country-specific driving patterns, we generate for each country a charging load curve corresponding to uncontrolled charging and consider the corresponding parking time at charging facilities in order to identify load shift potentials. The main results are that besides the charging power of the vehicles, the possibility to charge at the work place has a significant influence on the uncontrolled charging curve. Neither national nor regional differences are as significant. When charging is only possible at home, the vehicle availability at charging facilities during the day for all countries is at least 24%. With the additional possibility to charge at work, at least 45% are constantly available. Accordingly, we identified a big potential for load shifting through controlled charging.