Integration of Renewable Energy Generation with EV Charging Strategies to
Optimize Grid Load Balancing
Rui Freire, Joaquim Delgado, João M. Santos and Aníbal T. de Almeida, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract - In this paper we will discuss three different
Electric Vehicle Charging Strategies known as Dumb
Charge, Smart Charge and Vehicle To Grid (V2G); as
well as their impacts on the Portuguese Electric
Transmission Grid for a 100% Electric Vehicle Fleet
scenario. The future interaction between V2G and the
large-scale penetration Renewable Resources will also be
analyzed.
I. INTRODUCTION
A large portion of the electricity produced today is based
on non-renewable resources like Coal, Natural Gas, Oil and
Uranium. The fossil resources, as we know, contribute to the
amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Adding to this,
we have the transportation sector supported 98% by Internal
Combustion Engines (ICE) [1], mostly using oil derived
fuels and so responsible for more carbon dioxide emissions.
Fortunately renewable sources like hydroelectric, wind,
solar, geothermal, biomass and wave power are playing an
increasing role in both electric energy production and
transportation sectors. After nearly a century of hibernation,
the automobile industry is returning to the process of
electrification. Motivated by the increasing awareness of oil
depletion and climate change, the electric vehicle (EV)
sector is currently developing rapidly with new players
entering the scene and with the traditional industry actively
developing new models.
The use of Plug-In charging without any constraint
(Dumb Charge) leads to a large number of electric vehicles
connected the grid nearly at the same time. This will may
cause a peak demand that the grid cannot support. A
controlled strategy of charging, the so called smart charge,
is therefore needed to permanently adjust the demand to the
available power. This procedure will be discussed in the next
section. However, with the proliferation of electric vehicles
(EV´s) in the market another charging strategy might be
considered. Because the most significant renewable sources,
like wind and solar, are intermittent, V2G might contribute
as a powerful mechanism to integrate this type of
production, see Section 3.
II. EV´s PENETRATION AND CONSUME
Taking account the number of light vehicles of the last
years [2], we develop , with Matlab´s Toolbox curve fitting,
equation (1) which gives the estimated number of light
vehicles for next years.
Whereas:
N - estimated number of light vehicles
x - year ( > 2000)
From (1) we obtain a the portuguese fleet that consists of
4.700.000 light vehicles by the end of 2010.
Assuming a 10% EV´s penetration in the Portuguese
market, which corresponds to 470.000 EV´s, and also
assuming an average daily distance traveled of 50 km per
vehicle as well as an average consume of 200 Wh/km per
vehicle, then we have 200x50x365x470.000 = 1,72 TWh
consumed per year. This corresponds to 3,43% of the
Portuguese total actual electricity consume per year (aprox.
50 TWh).
For other EV´s penetration scenarios you might see the
following table.
TABLE I
EVs PENETRATION AND CONSUMES
EVs
Penetration
Number of
EVs
Increased
Energy
EVs Consume per
year
10% 470.000 3,43% 1,72 TWh
25% 1.175.000 8,6% 4,29 TWh
50% 2.350.000 17,2% 8,6 TWh
75% 3.525.000 25,7% 13 TWh
100% 4.700.000 34.3% 17,2 TWh
Considering that the Portuguese fleet light vehicles will
not increase more than 5.000.000 vehicles in the next
decades, and considering the improvement in the efficiency
of the Electric Power Drive Systems, the maximum
increased consume will not be greater than 36,5%. This
increase will be gradual and it will expand simultaneously
with the future exploration of renewable sources. In fact, for
a 25% EV´s penetration, the extra energy needed is lesser
than 2009 wind production of 7.44 TWh [3].
Anyway there are concerns, that should be taking into
account, when we plug an entire fleet of electric vehicles to
the grid. As will see on the fourth chapter, plug in an 100%
EV´s fleet (worst case scenario), could lead to high peaks of
demand that can be perfectly avoided.
2010 13th International IEEE
Annual Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems
Madeira Island, Portugal, September 19-22, 2010
MB5.2
978-1-4244-7659-6/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE 392