Electric vehicle charging and wind power integration: Coupled or decoupled electricity market resources?

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the synergetic benefit of wind power and plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) to the power system and to each other. We consider the integration of wind power and intelligent charging of PEVs into the wholesale electricity market of the New York Control Area (NYCA). We use a data-based two-settlement energy market model for the NYCA and a commuter transportation model for New York State with 7,560 scenarios. They include curtailable and must-take wind power penetrations of up to 25%, PEV penetrations of up to 25% and Level 1/Level 2 mixtures of charger infrastructure in a span of 21 summer days in 2006. Preliminary results suggest that wind power and intelligently charged PEVs greatly benefit the NYCA as independent system-level resources. However, there does not appear to be noticeable system benefits and dispatch correlations from coupling must-take wind and PEVs. Consequently, the traditional view of synergy in the grid integration of wind power and PEV charging may not always hold, prompting the need for additional studies before designing the relevant energy policies.