Impact of Electric Vehicles Charging on Load
Curve
Zhilong Lin, Tongke Zhong, Zhaoxia Jing, Shan Huang
Abstract-The large scale application of electric
vehicles (EVs) will cause great impact on power
system, while it also provides a new chance to solve
problems of the grid as reducing peak-valley
difference. Based on the models of EVs behavior, this
paper considers various factors such as charging
methods of EVs, price policies of grid companies and
charging modes of grid agents and non-grid agents;
then the charging behavior of EVs are divided into
four scenarios, and the Monte Carlo method is used to
evaluate the impact of different scales of EVs on the
daily load curve in Guangzhou. The results indicate
that the grid companies should take measures to
reduce the burden brought by the large application of
EVs; it will lead to a better effect on filling the valley
load, with the guidance of the peak and valley pricing
policy and maximum load pricing policy or when the
grid companies control charging behavior of all EVs
directly.
Keywords-Electric vehicle; Pricing policy; Monte
Carlo method; Load curve.
I. INTRODUCTION
With the exhaustion of the oil resources and the
environment problem received increasing attentions,
many countries including China choose electric
vehicles as the development direction of the
automobile industry [1].
As a special load, EVs charging behavior is
random and intermittent. Mass disorder charging
behavior of EVs may sharpen the peak load and
impact the security and reliability of the power grid.
Therefore, it is necessary to research the impact of
EVs large scale application on power load, and take
an appropriate strategy to meet the future
development of the EVs. There are many articles on
this topic at home and abroad now[2-6]: based on
the models of private cars driving behavior, [2]
simulated several charging strategies such as instant
charging strategy and cost minimization strategy,
and analyzed the necessity of the intelligent
charging strategy; [3][4][5] set different scenarios
of price policies guide to research the difference on
load curve brought by EVs charging; [6] calculated
different kinds of EVs charging power such as
buses and private cars, and the result showed that
EVs charging load will appear obvious peak-valley
difference, and its peak hours were basically the
same as the peak load hours of grid.
At present, many development strategies of EVs
are not completely confirmed, such as charging
modes, charging agents, electric policies to guide
orderly charging, etc. From the point of view of the
impact of EVs on grid load, its necessary to
analyze the characteristics of EVs and the impact of
different strategies and policies on load curve.
Based on the models of EVs behavior, this
article researches the impact of charging behavior
on daily load curve in Guangzhou in 2015. At first,
according to the actual situation, this article
describes the behavior properties of buses and
private cars in terms of length of travel, charging
methods and charging time, and afterwards sets four
scenarios about charging behavior of EVs, then
simulates with the Monte Carlo method to evaluate
the impact of different scales of EVs on the daily
load curve.
II. EVS BEHAVIOR MODEL
According to the literature [7], the main factors
in influencing EVs demand are power batteries,
charging facilities and users behavior, and the
users behavior is the key random one. According to
the statistics, the average park time of every vehicle
is more than 20 hours a day, even in rush hours,
there are more than 90% of vehicles in park [2]. It
shows that users can charge their electric vehicles
any time. This article focuses on electric buses and
electric private cars, and considers several factors
such as length of travel, charging methods and
charging time to research their charging behavior.
A. Behavior properties of electric buses
The situation that more and more electric buses
are used in cities like Beijing, Guangzhou and
Changsha provides preliminary data reference to
research their behavior properties. According to the
current situation and future developing trend, this
part will describe electric buses behavior properties
in terms of length of travel, charging methods and
charging time.
1) Length of travel
According to the statistics data in 2005, the
average mileage of every bus line is 19.5 km. Thus,
in this article, it is supposed that the mileages of
every electric bus are normally distributed with
expected value 19.5 km and the variance 5 km, and
the speed is 25 km/h.
2) Charging methods
The charging methods of EVs can be mainly
divided into the battery charging method and the
battery replacement method [8]. The battery
charging method can be divided into slow charging
method and fast charging method. The time that the
slow charging method need is too long to be
suitable for electric buses used frequently. The fast
charging method can greatly shorten the time but it
will shorten battery life and bring great impact on
the grid, for instance, it needs 210 kW to fill a 35
kWh battery in 10 minutes. At present, the battery
replacement method is used as a main charging
method for electric buses in Guangzhou.
Based on the analysis above, without
considering the battery charging method for electric
buses, this article assumes that all the electric buses
use the battery replacement method, namely,
operating during the day, charging during the night.
To ensure that the electric bus can replace battery
timely to complete the route, this paper makes
further assumption that the exchanging battery
station equipped with enough batteries to replace
will be set in all bus terminals. According to the
electric bus operation experience in Shanghai and
Chengdu, it assumes that the battery should be
replaced when the power state is less than 30% or
not enough for bus to finish next travel.
3) Charging time
This article assumes that the operation time of
electric bus is 8:00 am to 6:00 pm, and the electric
bus can replace battery during this period when
power is not enough, and the electric exchanging
stations operate 24 hours a day so that they can
charge the battery replaced any time.
B. Behavior properties of electric private cars
Different from electric buses, electric private
cars are used mainly on and off duty, and run
average twice a day [2]. For this reason, this article
divides the time connected to the grid into two parts:
day in the company and night at home, and
considers the behavior property respectively.
1) Length of travel
As the travel of an electric private car is
generally between 40 km and 60km a day [9][10],
the single mileage of an electric private car will be
evenly distributed in the 20 km and 30 km assuming
that the mileage on and off duty is the same.
2) Charging methods
With respect to electric buses, electric private
cars can have more charging time since they park
most of time a day, so the slow charging method is a
reasonable choice than the fast charging method for
electric private cars, and the replacement battery
method may be also adopted [8].
Based on the analysis above, this article
considers the slow charging method and the
replacement battery method as electric private cars
charging methods. It makes an assumption that
there are enough charging facilities built in parking
lots in companies and residential area so that
electric private cars using the slow charging method
can connect to the grid anytime, and the charging
condition of electric private cars using the
replacement battery method is similar as the electric
bus, namely, the battery should be replaced in the
exchanging battery station when the power state is
less than 30% or not enough for bus to finish next
trip.
3) Charging time
The time that electric private cars take to go on
and off duty is normal distribution [3] [9].
Considering the situation in Guangzhou, the
charging time connected to the grid is set as
following assumption:
y The arrival time and the departure time are
subjected to normal distribution. The
expected value is 8:30 am and 5:30 pm
respectively, and both the mean-square
deviations are 30 minutes;
y The time when cars arrive at parking lots in
residential area is subjected to normal
distribution. The expected value is 7:00 pm
and the mean-square deviation is 30
minutes. The time when cars leave home is
8:00 am next day.
Similar with the electric bus, exchanging battery
stations can charge batteries by the slow charging
method any time.
III. SIMULATION SCENARIOS
Since the large scale application of electric
vehicles will impact on power system, this part
designs four simulation scenarios considering
comprehensively four factors: the charging method
(the slow charging method or the replacement
battery method), the operation agent (grid
companies or other companies or persons), the price
policy (uniform price or peak and valley price), the
peak load price (take or not) based on EVs
behavior model to research the impact in detail. The
specific design method analysis is as follow.
A. Simulation scenarios design method
The electric private cars can replace batteries in
the exchanging battery station or charge via
connecting to the grid, while the electric bus can
only choose the replacement battery method. In this
part, exchanging batter stations and EVs can be
operated by the grid companies which are called
grid agents, or other companies and persons which
are called non-grid agents. Grid agents and non-grid
agents pursue different interests so that they will
take different actions.
The grid companies will take some measures to
control coordinately charging time of EVs
connected to the grid in order to optimize the
impact brought by mass EVs. Since the EV market
is still unformed, its unknown whether non-grid
agents exist or not, so this article considers two
situation as follow:
y If non-grid agents exist, grid companies can
make price incentive policies to affect
charging behavior of exchanging battery
stations and EVs operated by non-grid
agents. Peak and valley price and peak load
price are considered in this article;
y If non-grid agents do not exist, grid
companies will control directly all the EVs
in the grid by exchanging battery stations
and EVs operated by grid agents to
optimize charging state according to load
situation.
In the first case, non-grid agents are sensitive to
price policies because they earn profits by the
difference between sell and purchase the power so
that they will take different charging mode
correspond to different polices. Three situations are
considered in this article:
y If grid companies adopt the uniform price
policy, non-grid agents will start charging
batteries immediately after replacing battery
or when battery power state is low without
considering the impact on grid because the
cost are the same any time. This charging
mode is called instant charging mode in this
article.
y If grid companies adopt only peak and
valley price policy but not peak load price
policy, non-grid agents will start charging
batteries in valley period immediately after
replacing battery or when battery power
state is low without considering the impact
 on the grid because the price in peak and car as an example [10].
valley period are different and the
maximum load cost do not exist. This TABLE I. LOAD OF GUANGDONG ON A SUMMER

charging mode is called concentrated DAY IN 2010(UNIT: MW)

charging mode.
Time 0:00 0:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30
y If grid companies adopt both peak and Load 9179 8883 8692 8519 8043 8057
valley price policy and peak load price Time 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30
policy, non-grid agents will optimize Load 7820 7646 7564 7305 7238 7192
uniformly charging time to reduce charging Time 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30
cost because the price in peak and valley Load 7003 6946 6981 7266 7993 9278
period are different and the maximum load Time 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30
cost exist. To analyze expediently, batteries Load 9821 10408 10589 10972 11193 11250
to be recharged are divided into several Time 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30
batches as a simplest optimize method in
Load 10785 10443 10509 10759 11059 11042
this article and the result will not be
Time 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 17:30
influence essentially by this simplification.
Load 10970 10879 10798 10611 10424 10218
This charging mode is called batch charging
Time 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30
mode.
Load 9558 9320 9476 9559 9526 9439
Based on analysis above, EVs charging Time 21:00 21:30 22:00 22:30 23:00 23:30
behavior will be divided into four simulation Load 9384 9235 9114 9108 8762 8305
scenarios:
TABLE II. PARAMETERS OF ELECTRIC BUSES AND
y non-grid agents exist and no price incentive
PRIVATE CARS
policy adopted;
Energy Charging
y non-grid agents exist and only peak and Battery
consumption power
capacity(kWh)
valley price policy adopted; (kWh/km) (kW)
Electric bus 52 0.65 13
y non-grid agents exist and both peak and Electric
valley price policy and peak load policy private car 21.6 0.139 3.6
adopted; RAV4[10]
Based on Table 1, the daily load in 2015 can be
y non-grid agents do not exist.
predicted according to load growth rate 9.5% in
Before the simulation scenarios are described in Guangzhou. According to the energy development
detail, basic parameters will be introduced first. plan of Guangdong province, it will form more than
200,000 comprehensive production capacity of the
B. Basic parameters of the scenarios
electric car, it assumes that there will be 8000
Table 1 shows the load data on a summer day in
electric buses running in Guangzhou at that time,
2010 in Guangzhou for predicting and drawing the
and there will be 200,000 or 500,000 electric private
typical daily load curve the next few years. Table 2
cars used by commuters, half of these adopt the
gives the basic technical parameters of the electric
slow charging method and the other half adopt the
bus and the electric private car, and the parameters
replacement battery method. In simulation scenarios,
of the electric bus are assumed reasonably
considering users won't replace batteries frequently
according to the current operation condition, and
because of the cost, it assumes that the initial
parameters of the electric private car take the
battery state of electric private cars using the
parameters of Toyota motor company RAV4 electric
replacement battery method distribute uniformly
among 30% to 100%, the same as replacement
battery critical level described previously, while the
initial battery state of electric buses and electric
private cars using the slow charging method is full.
C. Simulation scenarios
Scenario 1: non-grid agents exist and no price
incentive policy adopted.
In this case, the non-grid agents and the electric
private cars using the slow charging method are not
motivated because charging cost are all the same
any time so that they will connect the battery to be
recharged to the grid randomly till full.
Scenario 2: non-grid agents exist and only peak
and valley price policy adopted.
In this case, the non-grid agents will take the
concentrated charging mode, and the electric private
cars using the slow charging method will charge in
the valley period, the peak and valley period is
shown in Table 3.
TABLE III. PEAK AND VALLEY PERIOD OF
GUANGZHOU
Peak period 14:0017:00; 19:0022:00
Flat period 8:0014:00; 17:0019:00; 22:0024:00 7:30 pm, the charging load increase sharply so that
Valley period 0:008:00
Scenario 3: non-grid agents exist and both peak
and valley price policy and peak load policy
adopted.
In this case, the non-grid agents will take the
batch charging mode, and charging the batteries
replaced down in batch in the valley period. The
batteries are divided into two batches to simplify the
experiment. Table 3 shows that the electric bus need
to charge 4 hours at most, and the electric private
car need 6 hours at most. The charging time of the
first batch of electric buses batteries recharged is
from 0 oclock, and that of the second batch
recharged is from 4:00 am; the first batch of electric
private cars batteries is recharged from 0 oclock,
and the second batch are recharged from 2:00 am
considering they need more charging time.
And the electric private cars using the slow
charging method are not affected by the peak and
valley price policy so that they act as Scenario 2.
Scenario 4: non-grid agents do not exist.
In this case, the grid companies will control
directly all the EVs in the grid by exchanging
battery stations and EVs operated by grid agents to
optimize charging state according to load situation.
So the non-grid agents and the electric private cars
using the slow charging method are not considered
in this case.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
This article uses the Monte Carlo method, and
simulates every scenario 1000 times and find out
the different scale of EVs charging load of each
hour in a day in every scenario to evaluate the
impact on grid load curve.
In Scenario 1, non-grid agents and electric
private cars are not motivated so that they start
charging as the battery be replaced down or the car
park in the lot. The charging time in a day is shown
in Figure 1. Since the time electric private cars
connect to the grid is concentrate upon 9:30 am and
load curve appears peak; at night the load is higher
than the day because the electric buses batteries
which has not run out yet start charging after
operation over. The load curve added with grid load
is shown in Figure 2. The figure indicates that the
situation non-grid agents and electric private cars
charge randomly without incentive will increase the
load each hour in a day, especially the electric
private cars instant charging will sharpen the peak
load and aggravate the valley-to-peak. Therefore,
900
8000 electric bused and 200 thousand electric private cars
800 8000 electric bused and 500 thousand electric private cars
700
600
Load (MW)
500
400
300
200
100
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Hour
Figure 1. Load curve of EVs charging under different
scales in Scenario 1
 4
x 10
1.9
1.8

1.8
Scenario 1
 Sc enario 2
1.7

1.7

1.6
1.6

1.5
1.5
Load (MW)

Load (MW)
1.4
1.4

1.3 1.3

1.2 1.2
The grid load predicted
The grid load predic ted
8000 electric buses and 200 thousand electric private cars
1.1 8000 electric bus es and 200 thous and electric private cars
8000 electric buses and 500 thousand electric private cars 1.1
8000 electric bus es and 500 thous and electric private cars

1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 1
Hour 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Hour

Figure 2. The impact of EVs on the load curve under Figure 3. The impact of EVs on the load curve

different scales in Scenario 1 under different scales in Scenario 2

EVs charging behavior needs to be guided by the

4
x 10
1.8

Scenario 3
1.7

price police to reduce EVs impact on the grid. 1.6

1.5

Load (MW)
In Scenario 2, because of the peak and valley 1.4

1.3

price policy, non-grids and electric cars using the 1.2

The grid load predic ted

1.1 8000 electric buses and 200 thousand electric private cars

slow charging method to charge the batteries in the 1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
8000 electric buses and 500 thousand electric private cars

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Hour

valley period. It can be seen in Figure 3 that the grid
load increases dramatically about 1000 MW Figure 4. The impact of EVs on the load curve

(corresponding 8000 buses and 200000 car) or close under different scales in Scenario 3

to 2000 MW (corresponding 8000 buses and
4
x 10
1.8

Scenario 4
1.7

500000 car) at 0 oclock , which indicates that 1.6

concentrated charging will cause a big impact on 1.5

Load (MW)

1.4

the grid, especially at the beginning of valley period. 1.3

In addition, since the valley time is long and EVs 1.2

The grid load predicted
8000 electric buses and 200 thousand electric private cars
1.1

charging time is no more than 6 hours, the charging

8000 electric buses and 500 thousand electric private cars

1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Hour

load cant fill the valley at night effectively and

sharpen the curve on the contrary. So only guided Figure 5. Ideal load curves under different scales of
by the peak and valley price policy cant relieve EVs in Scenario 4
pressure brought by EVs mass application.
In Scenario 4, the grid companies can control
In Scenario 3, because of the incentive of both directly all the EVs in the grid by exchanging
peak and valley price policy and peak load policy, battery stations and EVs operated by grid agents to
the non-grid agents take the batch charging mode to optimize charging state according to load so that the
charge batteries replaced down from electric buses load curve is satisfactory. The result is shown in
and half of the electric private cars in the valley Figure 5.
period, and the other half of the electric cars start
Based on four scenarios above, it can reach the
charging from 0 oclock. The result is shown in
conclusion that: without the price incentive policy,
Figure 4. Compare to the concentrated charging
the random charging behavior of non-grid agents
mode in Scenario 2, the batch charging mode
and electric private cars will increase grid load each
reduces obviously the impact that the EVs charging
hour in a day, especially the instant charging of
at night cause on the grid, and this mode can extend
electric private cars will sharpen the peak load, so
EVs charging time to fill the valley load effectively.
EVs charging behavior needs to be guided by the
The effect depends on the number of batteries in
price police; with only peak and valley price policy
batch. In short, in the incentive of both peak and
guiding, non-grid agents concentrated charging
valley price policy and peak load policy, EVs
mode and the charging behavior of electric private
charging behavior get a better guide.
cars will cause big impact on gird at the beginning
of valley period and cant fill the valley load
effectively; with both peak and valley price policy
and peak load policy guiding, non-grid agents will
take the batch charging mode, and this mode can
distribute uniformly in the valley period to full the
valley load effectively. In addition, if grid
companies control directly all the EVs charging
behavior, the effect of filling valley load is ideal.
V. CONCLUSION
This article describes in detail the behavior
properties of electric buses and electric private cars
in terms of length of travel, charging methods and
charging time, and considers the charging methods
of EVs, price policies of grid companies, charging
modes of grid agents and non-grid agents based on
the EVs behavior model, divides the charging
behavior into four scenarios to evaluate the impact
EVs mass application on grid load curve in 2015 in
Guangzhou, and reach the conclusion as follow:
y Without price incentive policy, the instant
charging behavior of electric private cars is
easier to sharpen the peak load than
non-grid agents;
y When only guided by peak and valley price
policy, the concentrated charging
non-grid agents and electric private cars
will cause big impact on the grid at the
beginning of valley period, and when
guided by peak and valley price policy and
peak load policy, batch charging mode
taken by non-grid agents get better effect
that fill the valley load;
y It will get an ideal result when the grid
companies control all the EVs charging
behavior directly.
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