Impact of peak electricity demand in distribution grids: a stress test

Abstract

The number of (hybrid) electric vehicles is growing, leading to a higher demand for electricity in distribution grids. To investigate the effects of the expected peak demand on distribution grids, a stress test with 15 electric vehicles in a single street is conducted and described in this paper. The test is conducted in a neighbourhood where both transformers and households are equipped with measurement devices. A significant maximum power consumption increase (more than double) is observed at one transformer when both the electric vehicles and domestic loads stress the network. The observed voltage drop in the network is 17V. Analysis further shows that the hosting capacity is around 15%–20% for the investigated networks and that under voltage is unlikely to occur. The measurements are compared to a simulation and the results show that the simulations predict the actual measurement accurately.