As part of decarbonization efforts, countries are adapting their energy policies accordingly. Sweden has established ambitious energy goals, which include CO2 emissions reduction in the transport sector and high integration of renewables in the electricity sector. Coupling the two can be an enabling force towards fossil freedom. An increased share of electric vehicles is therefore a promising solution in this regard. However, there are challenges concerning the impact that a surge of electric vehicles would have on the electric infrastructure. Moreover, in Stockholm there is a shortage of power capacity due to limitations in the national transmission infrastructure, which further aggravates the situation. This paper develops a scenario-based simulation study to evaluate the impact of electric vehicle loads on the distribution grid of a Stockholm neighborhood. In this process, limiting factors and bottlenecks in the network were identified as being related to the peak power and transformer capacities for the years of 2025 and 2031. Two load management strategies and their potential to mitigate the power peaks generated from uncontrolled charging were investigated for the critical years.
Phase-wise enhanced voltage support from electric vehicles in a Danish low-voltage distribution grid