A Techno-economic Investigation for the Application of Second-Life Electric Vehicle Batteries for Behind-The-Meter Services

Energy Storage is expected to play a significant role in realization of a Smart Grid paradigm. Energy storage devices can compensate for the variation and shortfall of the output from stochastic renewable generation. They can participate and provide different types of grid services, alleviate peak demand, and maximize self-consumption for the end user. Once Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries reach their end of life for utilization inside a vehicle, they may still have sufficient capacity to be used as a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in second life. In this paper we present research outcomes showing the cost benefit analysis for operating EV batteries in second life for Behind the Meter (BTM) services for residential, fleet, and commercial customers. Our investigation has shown that there may be a viable case specially when there is pre-existing co-located renewable generation on customer site.