Impacts of EV penetration in a residential MicroGrid

V.Lioliou, M.Stamoulis, K.Tsatsakis, N.Hatziargyriou

Abstract
The connection of batteries of plug-in electric vehicles can have serious impact on the
distribution grid. The power flow of this connection can be bidirectional, as vehicles
can function either as flexible loads (charging) or storage sources (discharging). This
dual procedure must be controllable in order to achieve a more economic and optimal
grid operation. Within microgrids, the presence of Vs has more advantages. They
contribute to the optimization procedure allowing a higher and more efficient RES
penetration, while smoothing the load curve. In this case study, the impact of EVs in a
residential microgrid, during a typical summer day, is examined.
Index termselectric vehicles, battery storage, microgrid, dispersed storage and
generation, vehicle-to-grid, energy management.

Introduction
This research focuses on the optimal impact of EVs in a Microgrid .
Microgrids comprise Low Voltage distribution systems with distributed energy
sources, storage devices and controllable loads, operated connected to the main
power network or islanded, in a controlled, coordinated way. [N. Hatziargyriou,
2007]
The uncontrolled connection of EVs in the grid increases the peak demand, producing
technical and economical issues. Considering the EV batteries as microgrids
controllable components, charging and discharging (V2G procedure) can be executed
in an optimal way. Even more EV battery management can be used for balancing
load-generation, islanding, black start and regulation in a Microgrid, items which are
not examined in our case study. We focus on the optimal impact that EVs can have in
a residential grid by their dual function as:
- Flexible loads
- Storage devices
EVs as flexible loads, in a microgrid or a commercial building with DGs , help to take
advantage of the surplus energy in periods of high renewable energy production and
low load demand. Besides the technical an economic benefits, this approach is
environmentally beneficial, as the charging procedure is executed by using energy
sources of low CO
2
emissions, reducing the CO
2
footprint of EVs.
Moreover, EVs as storage devices, can offer this stored energy in high price periods,
reducing peak demand.
Storage Modelling Equations
The batteries of the EV fleet are modelled as if there was one large concentrated
battery for the entire vehicle fleet. Thus, the capacity is an aggregated quantity which
is equal to the sum of all individual batteries. The charging and discharging technical
constraints of the EVs need to be satisfied at each time interval while the user
constraints from traffic patterns must be met during the day.
In order to model the capability of EVs to behave either as a load or generation
element, the following terms must be added as balance equations. Figure 1 shows a
simple drawing of the power fluctuations that a domestic consumer has when EV and
PV technologies are present.

Figure 1. Representation of the power flows involved when EV and PV
technologies are present in a domestic consumers profile.

As seen in figure, the power injections from the grid are:

( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
load EVs inj PV grid
P t P t P t EV t

= + +

From this equation the term
grid
EV represents the net effect EV units have to the grid,
after charging and discharging. So:

arg arg
( ) ( ) ( )
grid ch e disch e
EV t EV t EV t =

Similar to the grid balance, there is also the EV balance which includes the charging
procedure from the grid (G2V), the discharging procedure (V2G), and the trip
procedure (
trip
EV ). The EV balance is stated as:
( )
24
1
2 ( ) 2 ( ) ( )
balance trip
t
EV G V t V G t EV t
=
=

This equation expresses that whatever energy is charged by the EVs the resource will
be spent in either transport purposes or in supplying power back to the grid.

In order to determine the state of charge for the battery during each period we
consider:

( 1) ( ) ( )
store store store
EV t EV t dEV t + = +

The value for
store
EV must always be equal or greater than the safety limit of battery
(SOC 40%) and lower from the maximum capacity of it. However, these constraints
do not apply to the term
store
dEV which is the change in the state of charge for a
specific time interval.

( ) ( ) ( )
store grid trip
dEV t EV t EV t =

In our case (7) BatteryCapacity*Num_of_EVs
store
EV =

Once the state of charge equation is defined it is important to establish boundaries that
indicate when the EVs will store or discharge energy. These equations are:

arg
( ) ( ) 2 ( )
ch e c
EV t w t G V t =
arg
( ) ( ) 2 ( )
disch e d
EV t w t V G t =
Factor w(t) take either values of 0 or 1 or serve the purpose of enabling the time
intervals in which it is possible to charge or to return energy back to the electric grid.

In our case during the periods of charging from the grid, we manage the charging
procedure in a normal way. We have the load curve (either from prediction or
historical data) and we apply a control method so:

arg
( ) ( ) , arg
load ch e
P t EV t const t ch ing period + = e


The same method is applied during the discharging period for the evening. We
formulate the discharging so:

arg
( ) ( ) , arg
load disch e
P t EV t const t disch ing period = e
During the trip periods we consider a departure of EVs from the grid during the first
hour. This traffic pattern is simulated by a linear distribution and there is a constant
departure of 5 EV per quarter.

The amount of energy, when PV generation exceeds the load demand, is:

( )
2
1
( ) ( )
t
surplus PV load
t t
E P t P t
=
=

, [
1 2
, t t ] when ( ) ( )
PV load
P t P t >
This amount of energy is used for EV charging from RES
Microgrid study case
In Greece a microgrid installed in Meltemi, a holiday camp near Athens, is exploited
in several ways as a demo installation for research purposes. For our study, the energy
consumption of the houses is considered as representative of the typical residential
demand and increased PV installation is assumed. The Microgrid modeled consists of:
20 houses
PV unit of 125 KW
20 EVs in housewife??? mode (After each route they return home)
Energy supply from the grid or diesel generator (back-up)
The typical load diagram is based on IEEE RTS data for a residential load. The peak
hours are during 20:00-23:00 and the valley hours are during the midnight (01:00-
07:00).
The total load profile during a typical day of July:
Figure 2: Total Hourly Load Demand for the Households
The microgrid includes, as a renewable energy source (RES), a photovoltaic park
(PV) of 125 KW .
The research has been done for a typical day of July, when the maximum efficiency
factor of PVs is 0.63. The generation curve from PV units is the following one
(source: DESMIE, Attica).
Hourly PV Generation
0,00
20,00
40,00
60,00
80,00
100,00
120,00
140,00
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Hour of Day (h)
P
o
w
e
r

(
k
W
)
Figure 3: Hourly PV generation

Electric vehicles modeling
Each one of the 20 EVs has a battery of 12 KWh.
The safety limit for the State of Charge of each battery is chosen at 40% of its
capacity. The energy consumption of a typical EV is 0.16 KWh/Km, as defined at
MERGE Project.
Electric vehicles belong to the home owners, having the same schedule each day.
They do a trip in the morning hours (07:00-09:00) and another one in the afternoon
(15:00-17:00).The mean value of the distance they cover is 20Km. Meanwhile they
are connected back to the area grid.
Results Analysis
Figure 3 shows the optimal impact of EV fleet in the small camp microgrid of our
research

Figure 3: Electricity curves of PV generation,Household consumption, Household & EVs
consumption
As seen in the blue area of the figure 3, the load of EV charging is controlled and
shifted in the period between 24:00-07:00, the valley hours of the load curve.
Between 07:00-09:00, period of EV mobility, the load curve is the typical load of the
camp, since there are no EVs connected to the grid. The shape of the curve during the
trip hours, assumes that there is no immediate departure of any of the EVs.
In the third period of the diagram there is an area (black part) in which EVs are
charged from the amount of energy generated by PV, that exceeds the load demand
from camp houses. So, during the period of high penetration of Renewable Energy
Sources, controlled EV charging, serves to avoid the RES energy rejection. The EVs
battery storage capacity is used.
The fourth period of the figure presents the next trip of EVs (15:00-17:00), which has
no effect to the load curve.
In the last period of the figure (17:00-24:00) the potential energy supply, that can be
injected from the batteries to the grid, until the safety limit of the batteries SOC , are
used by the Microgrid control to avoid the peak energy consumption from the grid.
So, EVs are used in Vehicle to Grid mode, functioning as storage device and offering
the additional energy stored.
As seen, the EV battery injection does not start right after the EVss return and plug-
in. This is due to the fact that the total amount of energy stored in the battery is
limited., so it is used in the period of the curve where the peak load demand is higher.
It is obvious, that in systems with RES energy rejection during the night, there is a
potential of using this energy for EV charging.

EV Storage Stationary Storage
It is obvious that in the microgrid concept and realization, the storage units are
essential to serve the optimal microgrid operation. Stationary storage devices involve
a high investment cost. By using EV batteries for energy storage in Microgrids, the
investment cost is avoided or at least reduced. So the Microgrid operator has an
obvious benefit from EV presence and control.
On the other hand EV owner gets reward for the high price energy offers in the grid
and obviously receives a compensation for the battery degradation caused by its use
from Microgrid.
A win-win relation is established between the Microgrid-EV owner and moreover,
there is a more efficient usage of the battery storage energy, as in the parking period,
their use from the grid prevents the battery decay effect.

Conclusion
The advantages from the use of EV battery, either as a flexible load or as storage
device, are seen in this case study. The optimal management of the Microgrid is
supported with a controlled usage of EVs.
The EVs charging control can shift these loads in periods of high RES generation and
during the valley hours, with many benefits.
Moreover, the use of EVs in V2G mode lowers the peak demand, offering a smoother
load curve, with limited variations (providing also more efficient use of generation
units).
Less CO
2
emissions from the total energy consumption is achieved. Economical
aspects and benefits have to be examined.
Additional research about efficient control methods for EVs is essential.