Electric Drive Vehicle to Grid Synergies with Large Scale Wind Resources

Vehicle to grid (V2G) provides an opportunity for the electric vehicles (EVs) to feed back their power to the electric grid as they are connected to the grid and not in use. However, during the charging period of these vehicles, the power is drawn from the electric grid to charge the battery. This paper examines the V2G capability of the EV fleet for its potential for synergies between the storage of the fleet and the intermittent nature of wind resources. Towards this end, a distribution feeder is considered with the wind power as its primary resource. Assuming an EV with V2G for each residence, different scenarios are studied to evaluate the capability of the EV fleet as the wind electric storage. An energy management method based on an evolutionary optimization approach is proposed to minimize the cost of the conventional generation required to supplement the wind power while maximizing the utilization of wind generation. Smart grid technologies such as real-time communication, smart metering and home area networks (HANs) are proposed to enhance the V2G capability for coordinated charging and discharging of the EV fleet in a distribution feeder. Flexibility of the system is assessed for the studied scenarios and the most appropriate solution is determined based on simulation results.