Analysis of Electric Vehicles as Mobile Energy Storage in commercial buildings: Economic and environmental impacts

Abstract

This paper investigates the application of Electric Vehicles (EVs) as Mobile Energy Storage (MES) in commercial buildings. Thus, energy systems of a commercial building including its grid connection, Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), Energy Storage (ES), and demand profile are modeled. Based on the developed models, a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) problem is formulated to optimize the operation of a commercial building microgrid (μθ) minimizing its daily energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Technical and operational constraints of DERs and ESS such as minimum up time and down time, load sharing characteristics of diesel generators, and charging and discharging constraints of ES devices are formulated to appropriately model the operation of a grid connected commercial μΘ. A realistic example with solar Photo-Voltaic (PV), Fuel Cell (FC), Micro-Turbine (MT), Stationary Energy Storage (SES), and MES is used to study effects of integrating EVs as MES on energy costs and GHG emissions of a commercial building. Simulation results that reveals potential economical and environmental impacts of EVs are presented and discussed.