Effect of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles charging/discharging management on planning of smart microgrid

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are recently being widely touted as a viable alternative to conventional vehicles due to their environment friendly and energy-wise features. Assuming that moving into the future, a large number of PHEVs users will exist, the overall influence of charging the on-board energy storage system is non negligible. Instead of charging from grid, renewable energies, such as wind and solar energies, are a potential alternative. This paper explores the potential impact of PHEVs as flexible load in order to increase the penetration rate of renewable energy in smart microgrid and also increase the load factor. In this study, we consider three scenarios for PHEVs charging and discharging. The first scenario to charge these cars is to connect them to grid as a plug and forget demand and they start charging whenever they are connected to grid until their batteries became completely charged. In the second and third scenario, PHEVs are connected as vehicle to grid. Charging and discharging is possible in this interface and an algorithm should be used to manage charge and discharge of these vehicles. This ability can be used in order to improve characteristic of power system like its load factor and increase renewable energy penetration. Customers with flexible charging patterns may be able to use smart charging systems to charge their vehicles when demand is low or renewable energy production is high. This study is performed for Ekbatan residential complex in Tehran, Iran.