Economic and Environmental Benefits of Vehicle-to-Grid in the Power System: A National Study of China’s 2030 and 2060 Dual-Carbon Goal

This paper proposes a systematic evaluation framework of how electric vehicles can impact the decarbonization pathways of the whole electricity system, especially from the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) mode. Modeling of the transition toward a ‘near-zero’ carbon emission system includes the optimization of multi-provincial power dispatch and expansion planning via evolutionary steps of five years from 2020 to 2060. Based on the actual geography resources, statistics of the driving behavior and power generation and consumption data, three electric vehicle charging regimes are considered, namely unmanaged charging (V0G), smart orderly charging (V1G) and V2G. Results show that the implementation of V2G in China can reduce the total cost and unit decarbonization cost of the electricity system by 19.4% and 47.8%, and reduce the carbon emission in 2030 and 2050 by 6.4% and 45.7%. The required extra energy storage would decrease from 1146 GW to 296 GW in 2050. The model and assessment results can be used by policymakers to determine competitive flexibility technologies.