Energy Management in Smart Distribution Systems With Vehicle-to-Grid Integrated Microgrids

In modern electric power systems, plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) potential are becoming reliable and flexible resources for energy balancing under varying energy supply and demand scenarios. In this evolving paradigm, designing energy management strategies for feasible and cost-effective utilisation of V2G is one of the several challenges faced by the utility operators and regulators. This paper proposes two energy management strategies to effectively utilize V2G potential of PEVs in managing energy imbalances in grid-connected microgrids. The contributions of this paper are in twofold. First, it proposes a novel bidding strategy for PEVs offering V2G by including the projected battery degradation cost to integrate them into microgrid operation. Second, two energy management strategies are proposed for inclusion of V2G into the microgrid operation based on the forecast accuracy on energy supply and demand, and market prices. The proposed V2G integration strategies are implemented using a multi-agent system developed in Java agent development framework and applied to a microgrid case study system. The simulation results and their analysis show that V2G can be used to maximum depth of discharge levels if the electricity price variation is high and battery cost of PEVs is low.