ALOCAÇÃO OTIMIZADA DE CONCENTRADORES DE DADOS PLC EM REDES DE BAIXA TENSÃO CONSIDERANDO INSERÇÃO DE VEÍCULOS ELÉTRICOS

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing increase in incentives for the use of electric vehicles in modern cities, resulting in a growing demand for residential chargers installed on lowvoltage networks. However, the installation of these electric chargers can affect the allocation planning of PLC technology-based data concentrators, as they share the same distribution network infrastructure. In this context, the paper presents a methodology for the allocation of PLC data concentrators considering the increasing insertion of residential electric vehicle chargers. Different electric load scenarios are taken into account, considering the number of electric vehicles connected to the electric network, energy consumption, and other factors that could influence it. For the application of the proposed methodology, an adapted low-voltage distribution test network was used, which contains 15 nodes and 45 end-users connected, some of them with photovoltaic generation. The results of the proposed methodology application show that the insertion of 20% of residential electric vehicle chargers in the network can affect the allocation planning of PLC data concentrators, leading to a considerable increase in the number of required data concentrators. Specifically, the addition of more than 80% data concentrators may be required, resulting in an increase of more than double the initial cost. Therefore, it is important to consider the limitations of PLC-based data concentrators during the installation planning phase to ensure the correct collection of information from end-users’ smart meters.