Grid Impacts of Plug-in Electric Vehicles on Hydro Quebec's Distribution System

As the potential economic and environmental benefits of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) become apparent and as strong interest develops among automakers, seamless integration of PEVs to the grid will be a critical step to encourage utility support for PEV commercialization. Technological barriers continue to fall, but taking advantage of opportunities to increase revenue and improve power system efficiency using PEVs will require active participation by utilities and OEMs in how the vehicles are introduced to customers. PEVs are transformational in that they introduce electricity as a meaningful automotive fuel to a potentially very large market. This paper will focus on some of the most pressing technical issues associated with the act of plugging these vehicles into the electric grid. This paper presents key impact results using the EPRI study methodology [1] for one representative Hydro-Quebec distribution feeders. This study is part of the multiyear collaborative project geared towards evaluating the localized impacts of plug-in electric vehicles on individual utility's distribution systems.