SMART ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATIONS TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY AND RELIABILITY OF THE DISTRIBUTION NETWORK: A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW

The rapid growth of electric vehicle adoption creates both promising opportunities and serious challenges for contemporary power distribution networks. Uncoordinated EV charging can impose substantial stress on the grid, resulting in voltage deviations, transformer congestion, and increased peak demand. This paper provides a comprehensive review of recent studies addressing smart EV charging strategies, uncertainty modeling approaches, benchmark test systems, and pricing mechanisms for improving distribution network performance. The IEEE 33-bus distribution test system is employed as a benchmark to examine the effects of EV penetration under different charging conditions. In addition, the study reviews smart charging strategies, Monte Carlo -based approaches for modeling charging uncertainty, and the integration of distributed energy resources, including solar photovoltaic systems and battery energy storage. Furthermore, several electricity pricing mechanisms -such as Time-of-Use, Real-Time Pricing, Critical Peak Pricing, and Peak Time Rebate -are analyzed in terms of their effectiveness for demand-side management and peak load mitigation. The reviewed literature indicates that the coordinated application of smart charging, DER integration, and dynamic pricing can significantly alleviate grid stress. This work offers a comprehensive perspective for the design of intelligent EV charging infrastructures thatsupport grid stability, energy efficiency, and environmental sustainability.