Abstract

The paper lists the drivers and the barriers for a widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), describes the different stakeholders involved in the electro-mobility ecosystem and summarises the main issues for the integration of EVs in distribution grids. Then, it presents some outcomes of the PlanGridEV Project, including the proposed new grid planning criteria, the envisaged future scenarios for EV integration, the expected services to be provided by EVs to distribution system operators and the ICT requirements linked to those services. Electric Vehicles (EVs) will become an important part of the transport system in Europe and can thus create a number of benefits in term of oil dependence reduction, air quality improvement and trade balance enhancement. However, they can also become a burden for distribution system operator (DSOs) if they charge in an uncontrolled way. In addition, the increasing deployment of renewable energy sources (RES) and other distributed energy resources (DER) are making the distribution grid planning more complicated than in the past, when consumers were considered to be passive elements and grid was dimensioned to meet peak demand. PlanGridEV project proposes new planning procedures, which take into account the possibility to manage consumers’ electricity demand, including the charging process of EVs, both to better integrate DER and to more efficiently plan the investments in the distribution grid. The planning rules will be validated by carrying out four test beds, which will serve as an input for assessing the economic performance of four scenarios, representing four theoretical alternatives for distribution grid planning. Different services that EVs can provide to DSOs and other actors in the e-mobility ecosystem will be analysed in each scenario. Then, a grid planning tool will be developed to help DSOs consider EVs and demand and other demand response (DR) capabilities when planning distribution grid extension. European Commission's FP7