Challenges of PHEV Penetration to the Residential Network in Malaysia

Increasing awareness of environmental issues coupled with escalating prices of petroleum product has led to the development of greener electric vehicle in the last few decades. One of the most promising alternatives to reduce CO2 emission and dependency on petroleum product in transportation market is the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). The battery of PHEV can be charged at home or other commercial locations through standard electrical power outlets. In Malaysia, scenario of charging PHEVs in house is still new. In this paper, we studied the impact of introducing large amount of charging activities in existing residential area such as overloading of load demand, undue stress line capacity and violation of voltage drop limits. The research used geographic information system (GIS) simulation software as a tool to investigate the impact of different penetration level of PHEV to the grid in selected residential networks in Malaysia. Later, two strategies have been applied to overcome the negative impact of PHEV charging to the distribution network.