The Impact of Electric Vehicle Hosting Factors on Distribution Network Performance Using an Impedance-Based Heuristic Approach

The fast adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and the integration of renewable distributed generators (DGs) provide significant operational issues for radial distribution networks (RDNs), notably in terms of power losses, voltage variations, and system stability. This paper investigates the optimal placement and sizing of EV charging stations (EVCSs) and DGs under varying EV hosting factors (EV-HFs). An impedance matrix-based load flow method is developed, and a derived analytical formula for power loss calculation is proposed to improve computational efficiency. A weighted multi-objective function is developed to reduce active power losses and voltage variations while optimizing the voltage stability index and the yearly cost savings from energy loss. The optimization is performed using a deterministic heuristic procedure that incrementally adjusts the location and size of EVCSs and DGs until no further improvement in the fitness function is achieved. This stepwise approach provides fast convergence with low computational effort compared to population-based metaheuristics. The methodology is used on the IEEE 33-bus system under different loading conditions and EV-HFs. The results reveal that for 40% and 60% EV-HFs, active power losses decreased by about 57% compared with the basic case, while the minimum bus voltage improved from 0.9148 pu to 0.9654 pu and 0.9641 pu. The economic analysis demonstrates annual savings of up to USD 473,550, with a payback period between 7 and 8 years. These findings emphasize the need of integrated EVCS and DG planning in improving future distribution systems’ technical and economic performance.