Studying the feasibility of charging plug-in hybrid electric vehicles using photovoltaic electricity in residential distribution systems

• The authors investigated the feasibility of charging PHEVs using PV electricity, from a system performance perspective.
• To achieve the previous goal, the authors studied the aggregated impacts of PHEVs and PV arrays on distribution networks.
• PV arrays can be used to meet PHEVs charging demands in the short-term projection.
• In the long-term projection, PV arrays cannot meet the much-increased demand of PHEVs.
• The previous finding is explained by the weak chronological coincidence between PV output and PHEV demand.

Recently, interest has grown in using photovoltaic (PV) electricity to charge plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). This paper investigates the feasibility of such a charging alternative, from a distribution system performance perspective. To achieve this goal, it is first necessary to determine the resulting aggregated impacts for both technologies when they operate in parallel. Although extensive research has explored the individual impacts of PHEVs and PV electricity on distribution networks, far too little study has been made of the interaction between these two technologies and the resulting aggregated impacts when both operate together.This paper fills this gap by developing a probabilistic Monte Carlo (MC)-based benchmark that can be used to assess the resulting impacts when PV arrays are used to charge PHEVs. Finally, the authors compare the resulting aggregated impacts with those resulting when PHEV charging demands are met solely from the medium voltage network, in order to draw conclusions on the feasibility of such a charging alternative.