Facilitating large-scale EV penetration in Iceland

Abstract

With increased awareness of anthropogenic emissions, industries and sectors worldwide are changing rapidly. One of those sectors is the transport sector which has seen immense change with the increase of electric vehicles in recent years. Although these electric vehicles reduce emissions and are a welcoming sign of change, they greatly increase electrical demand, especially on the residential distribution grids. Case studies and research on demand response with EVs has been increasing over the last years in an attempt to reduce this load impact. This thesis aims to explore how the charging load of a large EV fleet impacts the distribution grid of the capital region in Iceland and how it can be minimised with demand response strategies. A load model was created for the distribution grid and the results indicate that large-scale EV penetration can have a huge load impact. Furthermore, the results showed that demand response strategies can greatly reduce that impact and offer significant peak reductions. However, based on a bottom-up approach, the lower levels of the distribution grid seem to be worst affected, with and without demand response strategies. Future research should be focused on mapping these local grid effects and conducting more in-depth analyses on that level.