Increasing penetration of electrified vehicles will result in an increased overall electricity demand and to a greater load on the distribution grids.

Increased power demand

For Germany, it is expected that with a total number of 45 million vehicles, an additional electricity demand of around 90 TWh will arise. This corresponds to around one-sixth of current electricity generation in Germany. The additional demand is to be covered in part by the renewable energies. A particular challenge here is to match the electricity generated from renewables with the additional electricity demand from electric cars.

In the nPro tool, load profiles with hourly resolution can be generated for e-mobility charging stations for different building types.

Effects on power grid

Electric storage concepts and smart charging management are needed to ensure that electricity generation from renewable energies and the demand for the charging infrastructure for e-mobility occur at the same time. Only in this way can decentrally generated electricity from photovoltaic or wind power plants be used directly on site without putting too much strain on the distribution grid infrastructure. Smart load management can use demand-side management to reduce charging power at times of low renewable electricity production or, conversely, increase charging power at times of high renewable electricity production and exploit the battery capacities of electric vehicles to smooth out demand peaks. Here, the load profiles that need to be considered for neighborhood planning vary greatly by building type: In residential neighborhoods, the peak load are expected to occur primarily in the late afternoon and evening hours when residents are returning from work. Unless smart charging management is installed, the electric vehicle is charged immediately upon arrival and, depending on the maximum charging power, the charging power drops in the subsequent hours through the night. In the case of office buildings, substantially different load profiles are expected. Here, the highest charging power occurs primarily in the morning after the employees arrive. In commercial buildings, load management is more complex, since the charging management system does not know when the employee will leave work again and therefore charges the vehicle with the maximum possible power.