Open-Source, Open-Architecture SoftwarePlatform for Plug-InElectric Vehicle SmartCharging in California

This interdisciplinary eXtensible Building Operating System–Vehicles project focuses on controlling plug-in electric vehicle charging at residential and small commercial settings using a novel and flexible open-source, open-architecture charge communication and control platform. The platform provides smart charging functionalities and benefits to the utility, homes, and businesses.This project investigates four important areas of vehicle-grid integration research, integrating technical as well as social and behavioral dimensions: smart charging user needs assessment, advanced load control platform development and testing, smart charging impacts, benefits to the power grid, and smart charging ratepayer benefits

Platform Markets and Energy Services

A structural shift from transaction-based, marginal cost pricing to fee-based service business models often accompanies We emergence of “platform” markets, i.e. multi-sided markets where an intermediary captures the value of the interaction between user groups. The many examples include telecommunications, data storage, cinema, music and media, and the automobile industry. Why not electricity? In this paper, we explore how the electricity supply industry can be conceived of as a platform-mediated, two-sided market and the consequences for pricing. Through two cases, a balancing services provider for smart home energy management systems and an electric vehicle charge manager, we show where a platform entrant could position itself in the retail electricity markets between supply companies and end-users. The drivers of such a transition include increased volatility due to renewable generation, the new complexity of roles for end-users, and the introduction of information and communication technologies. Conceiving of electricity as a platform market where new entrants provide an energy optimisation and management service may stimulate a competitive ecosystem and innovation. We suggest that fee-based pricing would enable the objectives of time-varying pricing to be achieved without adversely affecting the most vulnerable customers

A chance-constrained approach for electric vehicle aggregator participation in the reserve market

As recorrentes preocupações ambientais têm levado a que se verifiquem alterações nos sistemas de energia, sendo que a aposta em sistemas distribuídos é já uma realidade, contudo a aposta em energia renovável está, normalmente, associada a intermitência no que diz respeito ao aproveitamento de energia proveniente do sol, vento, ondas, etc. Assim, neste paradigma, surgem os veículos elétricos que fazem parte do sistema e têm boas perspetivas de verem a sua penetração a aumentar exponencialmente num futuro próximo, pelo que devem ser estudadas novas formas de relação entre este recurso e os agentes de mercado. Neste momento, já é possível carregar e descarregar os veículos elétricos, o que, auxiliado pelas decisões e algoritmos corretos, pode contribuir com um apoio fundamental para a rede de energia tratar de forma simplificada congestionamentos e variações nos valores nominais de tensão e frequência. Tudo isto, está dependente da disponibilidade do proprietário do veículo para fornecer este tipo de serviço e que estados mínimos de carga sejam assegurados para as viagens diárias. Geralmente, os operadores da rede elétrica gerem elevados níveis de geração e carga, pelo que surge a necessidade do conceito de agregador de veículos elétricos, que terá a função de juntar vários veículos elétricos para assim corresponder de forma mais eficaz e com capacidade de oferta conforme as necessidades da rede.Neste trabalho, pretende-se otimizar o lucro do agregador, que poderá estar sujeito a penalidades em caso de falha no fornecimento de reserva a subir ou a descer, não colocando de parte a fiabilidade no fornecimento do serviço ao mercado de reserva. Deste modo, são utilizadas técnicas de otimização estocástica que pretendem modelar incertezas de uma pequena frota de veículos elétricos como disponibilidade para fornecer o serviço e perfis de consumo. A técnica de otimização chance-constrained, mais precisamente as relaxações Big-M e McCormick, são aplicadas a fim de analisar o risco da oferta que o agregador deve submeter em mercado.Para situações de mercado real, mais precisamente o FCR-N na Dinamarca, são explorados diversos cenários para diferentes níveis de risco submetidos em mercado, diferentes probabilidades de o veículo estar conectado à redeThe recurring environmental concerns have led to changes in energy systems, and the investment in distributed systems is in progress, however, the investment in renewable energy is usually associated with intermittent with regard to the use of energy from the sun, wind, waves, etc. Thus, within this scope, electric vehicles that are part of the system rises and stand good chances of seeing their penetration increase significantly in the near future, so new forms of relationship between this resource and the market agents should be addressed. At this point, it is already possible to charge and discharge electric vehicles, which, aided by correct decisions and algorithms, can contribute with a fundamental support for the energy network to deal in a simplified way with congestion and fluctuations in voltage and frequency. It all depends on the willingness of the vehicle owner to provide this type of service and that minimum states of charge are ensured for the daily trips. In general, electricity grid operators manage high power generation and load capacities, so there is a demand for the concept of electric vehicle aggregator, which will have the function to bring together several electric vehicles to correspond more effectively and with supply capacity according to the requirements of the grid.The aim of this work is to optimise the profit of the aggregator, which may be subject to penalties in the event of a failure in the provision of reserve upward or downward, regardless of the reliability in the provision of the service to the reserve market. Therefore, stochastic optimization techniques are used to model uncertainties of a small fleet of electric vehicles as availability to provide the service and consumption profiles. The optimization technique chance-constrained, namely Big-M and McCormick the relaxation methods, are applied in order to analyze the risk the aggregator must submit in the market. For real market cases, specifically the FCR-N in Denmark, several scenarios are analyzed for different levels of risk submitted in the market, different probabilities of the vehicle being connected to the grid

Participation of Electric Vehicle Aggregators in Wholesale Electricity Markets: Recent Works and Future Directions

Electric Vehicles are key to reducing carbon emissions while bringing a revolution to the transportation sector. With the massive increase of EVs in road networks and the growing demand for charging services, the electric power grid faces enormous system reliability and operation stability challenges. Demand and supply disparities create inconsistency in the smooth delivery of electrical power. As a potential solution, EVs and their charging infrastructure can be aggregated to prevent the unwanted effects on power systems and also facilitate ancillary services to the power grid. When not need for transportation purposes, EVs can leverage their batteries for power grid services by participating in the electricity market via mechanisms coordinated by system operators. Hence, the market participation of EV infrastructure can help alleviate the power grid stress during peak periods. However, further research is needed to demonstrate the multiple benefits to both EV owners and power grid operators. This paper briefly overviews the existing literature on market participation of EV aggregators, discuss associated challenges and needs, and propose research directions for future research

Transforming Energy Networks via Peer to Peer Energy Trading: Potential of Game Theoretic Approaches

Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading has emerged as a next-generation energy management mechanism for the smart grid that enables each prosumer of the network to participate in energy trading with one another and the grid. This poses a significant challenge in terms of modeling the decision-making process of each participant with conflicting interest and motivating prosumers to participate in energy trading and to cooperate, if necessary, for achieving different energy management goals. Therefore, such decision-making process needs to be built on solid mathematical and signal processing tools that can ensure an efficient operation of the smart grid. This paper provides an overview of the use of game theoretic approaches for P2P energy trading as a feasible and effective means of energy management. As such, we discuss various games and auction theoretic approaches by following a systematic classification to provide information on the importance of game theory for smart energy research. Then, the paper focuses on the P2P energy trading describing its key features and giving an introduction to an existing P2P testbed. Further, the paper zooms into the detail of some specific game and auction theoretic models that have recently been used in P2P energy trading and discusses some important finding of these schemes.Comment: 38 pages, single column, double spac

Business Models for Prosumers in Europe

This report explores the different business models being adopted to enable renewable energy generation and self-consumption in the European Union. Individuals, businesses and energy communities that install renewable energy generation and self-consume some of that generation are called ‘prosumers’. Prosumers may be householders, businesses or communities whose primary business is not energy generation. The price of installing on-site renewables is falling, which means homes and businesses can increasingly afford the up-front cost of installing a system. At the same time, governments are removing the subsidies formerly paid to prosumers for feeding renewable energy into the grid. In parallel, energy systems are getting smarter, so it is becoming easier to account for smaller and smaller amounts of energy and to trade them between smaller players in the energy market; even down to household to household trades. The recent Clean Energy Package (CEP) for All Europeans enshrines the rights of European citizens to become individual and/or collective prosumers. Collective prosumers are defined in the Clean Energy Package by two new types of organisation; Renewable Energy Communities and Citizen Energy Communities who are empowered to generate, use and to sell energy collectively, between themselves. How these Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) and Citizen Energy Communities (CECs) are established in each Member State (MS) is a matter for each MS’s energy policy and regulation. This report explores why these RECs and CECs are necessary, what kinds of value they might be trying to capture in the energy transition, and how they can be empowered through MS’ energy policy and regulation. To do this we investigated the business models being adopted by individual and collective prosumers

Profitability analysis on demand-side flexibility: A review

Flexibility has emerged as an optimal solution to the increasing uncertainty in power systems produced by the continuous development and penetration of distributed generation based on renewable energy. Many studies have shown the benefits for system operators and stakeholders of diverse ancillary services derived from demand-side flexibility. Cost-benefit analysis on these flexibility services should be carried out to determine the profitable applications, as well as the required adjustments on energy market, price schemes and normative framework to maximize the positive impacts of the available flexibility. This paper endeavors to review the main topics, variables and indexes related to the profitability analysis on demand-side flexibility, as well as the influence of energy markets, pricing and standards on revenue maximization. The conclusions drawn from this review demonstrate that the profitability of flexibility services considerably de-pends on energy market structure, involved assets, electricity prices and current ancillary services remuneration.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

New actor types in electricity market simulation models: Deliverable D4.4

Project TradeRES - New Markets Design & Models for 100% Renewable Power Systems: https://traderes.eu/about/ABSTRACT: The modelling of agents in the simulation models and tools is of primary importance if the quality and the validity of the simulation outcomes are at stake. This is the first version of the report that deals with the representation of electricity market actors’ in the agent based models (ABMs) used in TradeRES project. With the AMIRIS, the EMLab-Generation (EMLab), the MASCEM and the RESTrade models being in the centre of the analysis, the subject matter of this report has been the identification of the actors’ characteristics that are already covered by the initial (with respect to the project) version of the models and the presentation of the foreseen modelling enhancements. For serving these goals, agent attributes and representation methods, as found in the literature of agent-driven models, are considered initially. The detailed review of such aspects offers the necessary background and supports the formation of a context that facilitates the mapping of actors’ characteristics to agent modelling approaches. Emphasis is given in several approaches and technics found in the literature for the development of a broader environment, on which part of the later analysis is deployed. Although the ABMs that are used in the project constitute an important part of the literature, they have not been included in the review since they are the subject of another section.N/

Vehicle-to-grid aggregator to support power grid and reduce electric vehicle charging cost

This paper presents an optimised bidirectional Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) operation, based on a fleet of Electric Vehicles (EVs) connected to a distributed power system, through a network of charging stations. The system is able to perform day-ahead scheduling of EV charging/discharging to reduce EV ownership charging cost through participating in frequency and voltage regulation services. The proposed system is able to respond to real-time EV usage data and identify the required changes that must be made to the day-ahead energy prediction, further optimising the use of EVs to support both voltage and frequency regulation. An optimisation strategy is established for V2G scheduling, addressing the initial battery State Of Charge (SOC), EV plug-in time, regulation prices, desired EV departure time, battery degradation cost and vehicle charging requirements. The effectiveness of the proposed system is demonstrated using a standardized IEEE 33-node distribution network integrating five EV charging stations. Two case studies have been undertaken to verify the contribution of this advanced energy supervision approach. Comprehensive simulation results clearly show an opportunity to provide frequency and voltage support while concurrently reducing EV charging costs, through the integration of V2G technology, especially during on-peak periods when the need for active and reactive power is high