The Synergies of Shared Autonomous Electric Vehicles with Renewable Energy in a Virtual Power Plant and Microgrid

• Main Authors: Riccardo Iacobucci, Benjamin McLellan, Tetsuo Tezuka
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-08-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: shared transportation; electric vehicles; renewable energy; vehicle-to-grid; charge optimization
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/8/2016

The introduction of shared autonomous electric vehicles (SAEVs), expected within the next decade, can transform the car into a service, accelerate electrification of the transport sector, and allow for large scale control of electric vehicle charging. In this work, we investigate the potential for this system to provide aggregated storage when combined with intermittent renewable energy sources. We develop a simulation methodology for the optimization of vehicle charging in the context of a virtual power plant or microgrid, with and without grid connection or distributed dispatchable generators. The model considers aggregate storage availability from vehicles based on transport patterns taking into account the necessary vehicle redistribution. We investigate the case of a grid-connected VPP with rooftop solar and the case of a isolated microgrid with solar, wind, and dispatchable generation. We conduct a comprehensive sensitivity analysis to study the effect of several parameters on the results for both cases.