Grid impact of photovoltaics, electric vehicles and heat pumps on distribution grids

An overview

Journal Article (2025)
Author(s)

Nikolaos Damianakis (TU Delft - DC systems, Energy conversion & Storage)

GR Chandra-Mouli (TU Delft - DC systems, Energy conversion & Storage)

P Bauera (TU Delft - DC systems, Energy conversion & Storage)

Research Group
DC systems, Energy conversion & Storage
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.125000
More Info
expand_more
Publication Year
2025
Language
English
Research Group
DC systems, Energy conversion & Storage
Volume number
380
Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Abstract

Distributed generation, such as photovoltaics (PVs), and electrification of heating and transportation with heat pumps (HPs) and electric vehicles (EVs) will play a major role in the energy transition. However, these low-carbon technologies (LCTs) do not come without side effects such as voltage violations, power loss increase, component overloading, higher energy consumption, power peaks, and power quality issues, e.g., harmonics and phase unbalance. This work constitutes a review analysis and summary of all the important findings concerning the various grid impact issues that can appear due to the grid integration of these 3 LCTs. The work also encapsulates various research characteristics such as grid topology, seasons, simultaneous operation under various LCT combinations, penetration levels, etc. Moreover, it incorporates a qualitative analysis of the impact level of the most investigated grid issues and quantitative comparisons between the different grid types and LCTs. It has been shown that the combined integration of PVs-EVs and PVs-HPs can result in mitigation effects without extra solutions. Moreover, voltage deviations and unbalance affect more the rural grids while component overloading is more hazardous for suburban grids. Finally, proposed mitigation solutions, such as energy storage, smart charging, etc., are correlated with their respective grid impact issues.