Abstract
Electric vehicles were proposed as a good solution to solving energy crisis and environmental problems caused by the traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. In the last years due to the rapid development of the electric vehicles, the problem of power grid integration was addressed. In order to not put additional pressure onto the power grid several new technologies were developed. This chapter presents the smart grid technology, vehicle-to-grid concept, and electric vehicles grid integration. These technologies made possible the integration of electric vehicles without any major changes in the power grid. Moreover, electric vehicles integration brought new benefits to the power grid like better integration of renewable energy.
TopBackground
Integrating a constantly growing number of electric vehicles into the electric power grid is a great challenge. For a successful integration into the power network, observation and than careful assessment of the economical impact is required. A lot of research activity was dedicated into finding the issues, solutions and impact of electric vehicle grid integration. Su (2013) presented a research that proved that most of the vehicles battery is charged at home and the future trend is the development of commercial or work place chargers. This charging scenario is bound to greatly overload the power grid. Another consequence may be the overheating of the power transformers or demanding new investments for the energy distribution system.
Pecas et al. (2011) proved in their work that integrating electric vehicles into the power grid will add value if this action is well planed and technically reorganized to meet the operational standards. In order to confirm the benefits of merging the grid and the vehicle fleets different studies were made. The benefits were divided among the vehicles owners and the utility providers. Bessa and Matos (2012) are the ones to propose a mitigating method using the aggregator. The aggregator is responsible for delivering information and communication between energy service provider, distribution system operator and the transmission system operator. The same idea is presented by Pillai and Bak-Jensen (2011) that propose a virtual power plant concept in which the vehicles fleets are controlled as a distributed energy unit.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Bidirectional Charger: The term refers to the electric vehicle smart charging equipment, able to communicate bidirectional with the aggregator, usually found in smart grid applications with vehicle to grid technology.
Aggregator: In this chapter, the term refers to demand response aggregator and is a commercial entity that provides demand response services such as the ones described in this chapter to customers with strategies or technology to reduce their electric consumption and then making use of the electric load reductions in wholesale energy markets.
Smart Grid: Power grid with smart equipment used for bidirectional communication and control. It refers to the electric power network of the future; the one that will be equipped with intelligent devices and automated control strategies.
Renewable Energy: Represents the energy produces from a energy source that is naturally replenished after use. Some examples are: sunlight, wind, rain, waves, tides, geothermal, etc.
Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle: Hybrid electric vehicles that has the option to charge its battery from the designated charging stations or directly from an electric outlet.
Well to Wheels: Represents a through emission analyze that takes into account not only the tail pipe emissions but also the emissions generated to produce the energy used to charge its vehicle battery.
Smart Charging: A term used to refer to the intelligent process of electric vehicle charging activity taking into account the power grid information. Electrical vehicle charging process is scheduled based on the clients demands and also on the communication with the responsible aggregator.
Power Grid: An interconnected network designed for transporting electric power from the generation plants to the customer.