Challenges of Vehicle-Grid Integration as Modern Distributed Energy Implementation

Abstract

Unpredictable and unmanaged Electric Vehicle (EV) charging together with intermittent solar generation remains a challenge in modern distributed energy implementation. Without the technology for harnessing EV charging to the benefit of the grid, there will be no market for grid services and little impact for aggregators. This paper provides systematic approaches for Vehicle-Grid Integrated microgrid planning. Several tools from governments and commercial simulation packages including Interruption Cost Estimate (ICE) Calculator, PVWatts, Storage Value Estimation Tool (StorageVETTM), Electrical Transient Analyzer Program (ETAP), and Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS), are used to verify the design requirements and simulate the electric load changes using smart charging and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G). The simulation results showed that load shaping by smart charging and V2G fattened undesirable ramps and halved the system’s peak load, which can be translated to significant cost savings for the grid operator.