# Impact of the Integration of the Electric Vehicle on Low-Voltage Rural Networks
## 2 Background  
The number of papers covering the impact of EVs in rural areas is much smaller than those dedicated to urban areas. Nevertheless, in the following paragraphs, we will give an overview of what can be found in the literature. Some authors explore the possibilities of EVs in rural areas, finding that the lack of infrastructure may exclude rural communities from EV development and deployment, contributing to the urban-rural divide [18]. A study of the potential for EVs in rural businesseshighlights that rural areas have particular vehicle use and infrastructure characteristics with longer distances and travel times that cause much greater concern for users due to autonomy anxiety [19]. This work concludes that the generalization of EVs in rural businesses needs to improve their cost, performance, and range; moreover, in the current situation, their widespread use would imply changing the organization and planning of companies. Rural grids are radial and long, often presenting problems of instability and voltage drops at their ends. Several authors studied the use of electric vehicle batteries as storage systems that help improve the stability and reliability of these grids and the penetration of electric vehicles into them. For example, a smartgrid architecture with real-time control integrating different distributed generation technologies and EV charging stations allows for decentralized management while increasing the ability to integrate new distributed energy resources (including EV charging stations) [16]. [PERSON] et al. [20] present a power electronic device featuring multiple AC and DC interfaces and flexible control capability. Based on this system, AC feeders can be converted to symmetric DC feeders by reusing existing transformers and power lines, forming a low-voltage microgrid and increasing the penetration of VE to 352%. Other authors explore cooperative charging of EVs to improve grid stability while increasing EV penetration [21; 22]. [PERSON] et al. [23] apply another approach and predict the load demand of EVs in a rural area and optimize charging strategies to smooth demand fluctuations in the network and reduce peak-valley differences while maximizing the economic benefits of participants. Finally, [PERSON] et al. [24] combines charging control and plug-in behavior, finding that the first has a more significant impact on grid flexibility, but with a minor effect on rural grids. Regarding simulations, the impact of EV charging on rural grids has been studied using different assumptions, objectives, and methodologies. One of the first works to consider how charging EVs affects rural grid performance through simulation was conducted by [PERSON] [25]. He concluded that it was necessary to limit on-peak charging processes so as not to compromise the operation of grid equipment. In addition, the limit determined by the voltage drop is reached earlier than the ampacity limit in rural feeders. [PERSON] et al. [26] used a synthetic network for the simulations and found that the risks of violating network stability conditions were higher in urban than in peri-urban and rural areas. However, they only considered thermal limits, undervoltage, and overvoltages in the point of connection without considering the effects at the end of the feeders and the imbalances due to the use of single-phase chargers in households. [PERSON] et al. [27] simulated a combination of a detailed high-voltage network with a low-voltage grid, determined from only the number of users, showing that EV penetration can reach up to 80% of residential costmers in urban grids, while rural grids can only sustain 40% penetration. [PERSON] et al. [28] considered a rural grid with only seven households to simulate the load complementarity of EVs with small photovoltaic (PV) generation systems, demonstrating how the two systems can complement each other to keep the voltage levels of the entire grid within the allowed limits.