Exploiting PHEV to Augment Power System Reliability

Environmental concerns with gasoline vehicles have led to increased attention to electric vehicles in recent years. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) use both electricity and gasoline to propel the vehicle, and is being recognized as a potential alternative to conventional vehicles. PHEVs offer opportunity to use electric energy generated by renewable resources and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The electric energy requirement of PHEV can, however, cause negative impacts on the power system reliability, especially when the size of a PHEV fleet is relatively large. This paper presents the development of a probabilistic model considering the driving distance, charging times, charging locations, battery state of charge, and charging requirements of a PHEV. A methodology using hybrid analytical and Monte Carlo simulation approach is presented to evaluate the reliability of a power system integrated with PHEVs, considering the important PHEV characteristics, charging scenarios, and power system parameters. Studies are presented on the IEEE-reliability test system to illustrate the impact of PHEV penetration in a power system. Based on the study results, the methods of augmenting system reliability through controlled PHEV charging are presented in this paper.