Guidance for Modeling EV Charging Load in an Urban Environment (Tehran) in SAM

Dear SAM Support Team,I am currently conducting a research project aimed at evaluating the technical and economic feasibility of installing electric vehicle (EV) charging stations powered by grid-connected photovoltaic systems at existing fuel stations in a major city (such as Tehran).For this purpose, I am using the SAM software to model the EV charging load in Tehran. However, I have not been able to find detailed hourly load data specific to this city. As a graduate student in economics, I do not have a deep technical background in electrical load modeling. At this stage, I have used a simplified assumption of a constant hourly load of 11 kWh throughout the year, based on two published studies that estimated the monthly electricity consumption of a charging station to be approximately 8000 kWh.That said, I would like to ask if there is a simple method or guidance you can suggest to help me generate a more realistic hourly load profile for EV charging. For example, would it be reasonable to use a standard load distribution that reflects typical peak and off-peak hours, or perhaps combine basic traffic flow or travel behavior patterns to approximate the load variation?I would greatly appreciate any advice or references you could provide that would assist me in improving the realism of my model within the SAM environment.Best regards,
samin roshan

Hi Samin,

This is an important area of study. I don't have specific suggestions. Here are some links from my web search for "EV charging load" that might help your research:

www.nrel.gov/news/detail/program/2020/how-might-electric-vehicles-affect-electric-loads

www.nwcouncil.org/2021powerplan_plug-electric-load-profiles/

publica.fraunhofer.de/entities/publication/87a3fb08-5898-4a5c-9f27-64a69a4d563a

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876610219301444

A couple of these links are to papers with references to other publications that may be useful.

Best regards,
Paul.