A quantitative analysis of the short-term and structural impact of COVID-19 measures on electric vehicle charging patterns

Abstract

Charging patterns of electric vehicles (EVs) are affected by the global COVID-19 lockdown, which forced people to stay home. This impacts the daily operation of grid operators, as different EV charging patterns could affect grid congestion levels. In addition, this effect could partly be structural, as the COVID-19 lockdown could induce a permanent shift in travel patterns, for instance when a larger share of the working activities are shifted to home. For this reason, this paper analyzes the effect of various phases of the lockdown on the charging volumes and patterns of EVs at three case study locations. In addition, this paper provides insights in future grid congestion levels with different adoption rates of EVs and different shares of the working activities permanently shifting to home after the COVID-19 lockdown. Results show a substantial drop in EV charging volumes; compared to the pre-lockdown phase, charging volumes decreased by almost 75% in the first lockdown phase, and to 60%-70% in later phases. In addition, the outcomes indicate that if a share of the working activities are structurally shifted to home, grid congestion problems in low-voltage grids could be dramatically reduced in the future.