Incorporating charging/discharging strategy of electric vehicles into security-constrained optimal power flow to support high renewable penetration

This research aims to improve the operational efficiency and security of electric power systems at high renewable penetration by exploiting the envisioned controllability or flexibility of electric vehicles (EVs); EVs interact with the grid through grid-to-vehicle (G2V) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) services to ensure reliable and cost-effective grid operation. This research provides a computational framework for this decision-making process. Charging and discharging strategies of EV aggregators are incorporated into a security-constrained optimal power flow (SCOPF) problem such that overall energy cost is minimized and operation within acceptable reliability criteria is ensured. Particularly, this SCOPF problem has been formulated for Jeju Island in South Korea, in order to lower carbon emissions toward a zero-carbon island by, for example, integrating large-scale renewable energy and EVs. On top of conventional constraints on the generators and line flows, a unique constraint on the system inertia constant, interpreted as the minimum synchronous generation, is considered to ensure grid security at high renewable penetration. The available energy constraint of the participating EV associated with the state-of-charge (SOC) of the battery and market price-responsive behavior of the EV aggregators are also explored. Case studies for the Jeju electric power system in 2030 under various operational scenarios demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and improved operational flexibility via controllable EVs.