With the issues of fuel cost and environmental impact on the rise, the concept of replacing conventional vehicles with plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) has become essential. The main goal of PHEV implementation focuses on the ability to utilize electrical propulsion to assist the internal combustion engine. However, the batteries for the PHEV must be recharged using grid energy. This paper will study the effects of PHEV charging at the sub-transmission level through modeling/simulation and power hardware in the loop including an actively controlled drive system and controllable load.