A Feasibility Study of Profiting from System Imbalance Using Residential Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

Marián Tomašov, Milan Straka, Dávid Martinko, Peter Braciník and Ľuboš Buzna ()
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Marián Tomašov: INO-HUB Energy j.s.a., Tomášikova 30, 821 01 Bratislava, Slovakia
Milan Straka: INO-HUB Energy j.s.a., Tomášikova 30, 821 01 Bratislava, Slovakia
Dávid Martinko: Department of Electric Power Engineering, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Technical University of Košice, 042 00 Košice, Slovakia
Peter Braciník: INO-HUB Energy j.s.a., Tomášikova 30, 821 01 Bratislava, Slovakia
Ľuboš Buzna: INO-HUB Energy j.s.a., Tomášikova 30, 821 01 Bratislava, Slovakia

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 23, 1-27

Abstract: Residential chargers are going to become the standard in the near future. Their operational cycles are closely tied to users’ daily routines, and the power consumption fluctuates between zero and peak levels. These types of installations are particularly challenging for the grid, especially concerning the balance of electricity production and consumption. Using battery storage in conjunction with renewable sources (e.g., photovoltaic power plants) represents a flexible solution for grid stabilization, but it is also associated with additional costs. Nowadays, grid authorities penalize a destabilization of the grid resulting from an increased imbalance between electricity generation and consumption and reward contributions to the system balance. Hence, there is a motivation for larger prosumers to make use of this mechanism to reduce their operational costs by better aligning their energy needs with the grid. This study explores the possibility of utilizing battery storage when it is not needed to fulfil its primary function of supporting charging electric vehicles, to generate some additional profit from providing a counter-imbalance. To test this idea, we develop an optimization model that maximizes the economic profit, considering system imbalance penalties/rewards, photovoltaic production, electric vehicle charging demand, and battery storage utilization. By means of computer simulation, we assess the overall operational costs while varying key installation parameters such as battery capacity and power, the installed power of photovoltaic panels and the prediction model’s accuracy. We identify conditions when counter-imbalance has proven to be a viable way to reduce installation costs. These conditions include temporal distribution of charging demand, electricity prices and photovoltaic production. For the morning time window, with a suitable setting of the installation parameters, the cost reduction reaches up to 14% compared to the situation without counter-imbalance.

Keywords: electric vehicles; residential charging; battery storage system; photovoltaic power plant; system imbalance; counter-imbalance; speculations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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