Optimization of Centralized Charging Strategy for Electric Vehicles in Power Distribution Network

The objective of this work is the optimization of a controlled electric vehicle (EV) strategy under a centralized architecture, considering a medium voltage electrical network. The method developed consists of a Particle Swarm Optimization, which determines the time available to charger each EV, segmentation of nodes of the network and their respective charging times, considering as constraints the levels of operation of the distribution network. The method is tested in a medium voltage network, considering penetration levels of 10%, 30%, 50%, and the simulations are performed in MATLAB software. The results indicate that at high EV penetration levels, the centralized strategies are quite advantageous in comparison to an uncontrolled strategy and an Off Peak and slightly above the decentralized charging strategy presented in previous works. As the new strategies determine a window of time that allows to distribute the charge of the batteries in the hours of less demand and in an outdated form, avoiding thus big peaks of demand and of chargeability.