Electric vehicles integration for enhanced grid support services
The project investigates how market and technological platforms can enable EVs to provide grid support services in systems with high renewable integration. It explores secure, standardized communication between system operators and individual or aggregated EV fleets, examines technical and operational challenges to using EVs as distributed energy resources, and defines requirements for decision-making models that manage EV fleets under uncertainty in prices, user behavior, and renewable generation.
The rising trend of electrification and the shift towards renewable energy sources are putting significant pressure on power systems, causing congestion and complicating supply-demand management. The widespread adoption of EVs and the lack of managed charging are intensifying these problems.
Smart charging and V2G capabilities can alleviate grid challenges, support renewable integration, and offer benefits to EV owners. Aggregators can manage EV fleets to form virtual power plants, balancing supply and demand in real-time, though this requires complex decision-making due to uncertainties like fluctuating prices and user behavior.
Grid support services from EVs can operate at various levels—behind the meter, at the distribution grid, and at the transmission level—each contributing to different aspects of grid stability, though conflicts between objectives across these levels complicate decision-making. Increasingly diverse grid services, supported by evolving network codes, are enabling distributed energy resources like EVs to play an active role in grid support.
The goal of this project; How can market and technological platforms be designed to enable EVs to actively provide power grid support services, especially with increasing renewable energy integration and grid modernization?
The project will explore how system operators can communicate with EVs, either individually or as pooled fleets, using standardized, secure protocols. It will also address the technical and operational challenges in providing grid services through EVs and assess how these impact their effectiveness as distributed energy resources.
Lastly, the project will examine the specifications needed for decision-making models that manage aggregated EV fleets, accounting for uncertainties like electricity prices, user behaviour, and renewable energy generation.
Partner
Volvo Cars
Doktorand
Vijay Arumugam