Evaluation of the time-of-use tariff responsiveness for plug-in electric vehicle home charging in Malaysia

Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVS) have become increasingly popular as a viable transportation option as owners can charge them at home. This will add much energy to the house if the users charge their PEVs at home. The PEV charging load will lead to extra energy demand on the distribution network, and the users will need to pay more for electricity if they use the current domestic tariff in Malaysia. This research aims to analyze the PEV charging costs using time-of-use (ToU) tariffs with different time segmentations and price elasticity. The effect of four residential load profile patterns has also been investigated in Malaysia as a case study. Four PEV charging scenarios were created, and the charging times were set according to Malaysian driving styles, with charging times starting at 6 PM, 10 PM, and 9 AM. The PEV and electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) are set to be homogeneous, and the EV was assumed to have a minimum state-of-charge of 20%. The main contribution of this paper is the selection of the ToU tariff segmentation, where the structure of the smallest time segmentation gave the lowest electricity bill per month compared to the Tenaga Malaysia Berhad (TNB) domestic tariff.