Herding from uncoordinated smart charging of EVs : a real-life demonstration

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Samende, Cephas and Akshaya, Akshaya and Bhagavathy, Sivapriya M. and Melone, Joseph and Snape, Richard and Stewart, Kevin; (2025) Herding from uncoordinated smart charging of EVs : a real-life demonstration. In: 2025 IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference Europe (ISGT Europe). IEEE, MLT, pp. 1-5. ISBN 979-8-3315-2503-3 (https://doi.org/10.1109/isgteurope64741.2025.11305...)

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Abstract

Electric vehicle (EV) adoption is accelerating globally, raising concerns about distribution network stability and the effectiveness of smart charging strategies. While time-of-use based smart charging approaches are widely promoted as a solution to manage network impact and demand, this paper presents empirical evidence that uncoordinated smart charging where EVs self-schedule based on the time-of-use tariff signal or algorithm may lead to unintended consequences, specifically a "herding effect" where EVs collectively create new demand peaks. Through empirical analysis of data from a field trial, this paper demonstrates that at 20–30% EV penetration levels, uncoordinated smart charging creates demand peaks that exceed traditional evening peaks. A localised demand diversification service (LDDS) is proposed in this paper, enabling coordinated, adaptive, and context-aware demand management as a mitigation strategy, and its real-life implementation is demonstrated. The empirical evidence on the herding effect and the proposed LDDS provide actionable insights for network operators and flexibility service providers.

ORCID iDs

Samende, Cephas ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8206-6198, Akshaya, Akshaya, Bhagavathy, Sivapriya M., Melone, Joseph ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2920-9946, Snape, Richard and Stewart, Kevin;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)