Adjusting residential load to include EV charging

Does NREL have any suggestions on how to include EV charging as a component of the time series residential load when modeling a PV or PV plus battery system?

Hi Robert,

I am not aware of a source of residential or commercial building load data that includes electric vehicle (EV) charging loads. NREL (and others) have published studies of the effect of EV charging on loads from the electric utility perspective that might be useful as a reference for creating your own load data.

For example these slides from an NREL presentation "Electric Vehicle Charging Implications for Utility Ratemaking in Colorado" includes some graphs showing average load shapes: www.nrel.gov/docs/fy19osti/73303.pdf

Best regards,
Paul.

Hi Paul, 

Are there any plans to include the EV charging as an option in SAM, for both residential and commercial scenarios? Either as an additional reference Load Profile or a separate SAM module?
If yes, what are the expected timeframes?

Many Thanks,
Agnes

Hi Agnes,

The load profile is an input to SAM, so you can include EV charging loads in the load data you provide on the Electric Load page.

We do not have immediate plans to add additional capabilities for modeling EV loads. Can you describe what kind of features would make your modeling more effective?

Best regards,
Paul.

Hi Paul, 

Thank you very much for your message, and apologies for my belated response. 

It will be helpful to have relevant EV charging profiles associated with residential and commercial buildings. Either, as a defined load profile (like the NREL OpenEI building load database), or an option to input the number of EVs expected at the premises. For the latter, the load requirements to be calculated automatically, based on the number of cars, and expected variations of the state of charge, absences, holidays etc. That said, it would be very beneficial to have that defined as a separate load requirement that needs to be met by the system or/and grid.

Next item is an inclusion of dedicated EV battery dispatch model. The model to have an option to treat the EV batteries as a battery back-up for the building, but at the same time imposing a restriction for the EV batteries to be fully charged by the time cars need to leave the premises.

The EV battery ideally would be an add-on to the stationary battery within the building.

I hope the above explains some of the capabilities, however please let me know if any further clarification would be helpful.

Kind regards and many thanks!
Agnes