Electric vehicle energy integration scenarios: a feasibility analysis environment

The UK Government has set a goal that by 2040, every new car will be an ultra-low emission vehicle. This makes the exploitation of excess storage in electric vehicles to provide electricity support potentially beneficial. The technology required to utilise this opportunity is called ‘vehicle-to-grid’, primarily a vehicle connection post with a built-in bi-directional inverter, providing both vehicle charging and discharging functionality. Through utilisation of this equipment, local energy systems, such as building clusters, can utilise the excess energy stored within the vehicles parked on site. The aim of this research was to create a platform from which to evaluate the investment opportunity of vehicle-to-grid in a local services case study for future energy scenarios. As such, a feasibility analysis environment was developed that evaluates the economic benefit to both vehicle and building owners in installing vehicle-to-grid. The software has the capability to assess any case study with a collection of buildings, vehicles, photovoltaics or market demand. Energy scenarios have been developed within the software to run case studies for economic evaluation, with the scenarios ranging from building peak shaving, tariff demand reduction, photovoltaic demand shifting and energy market provision. By altering the number of vehicles being assessed, the software can also calculate infrastructure provision requirements and related costs. [Continues.]