Flexibility potential of aggregated electric vehicle fleets to reduce transmission congestions and redispatch needs: A case study in Austria

Abstract

Redispatch measures are a key instrument of the Central European electricity market design to prevent congestion of several transmission lines after the market clearing. In addition to generation rescheduling, demand-side flexibility can reduce this redispatch need. This paper mainly aims to analyse the flexibility demand application of electric vehicle fleets in the redispatch market. The developed European electricity market model minimises dispatch- and subsequently redispatch costs whilst using electric vehicle fleets as flexible demand. A novel modelling approach allows the integration of this flexibility into large-scale linear programming models without losing their essential parameters. This case study is examined in Austria with a remarkably high share of electricity from renewable energy sources and different market penetrations of electromobility. Results show that integrating this system as a redispatch measure leads to a reduced curtailment of renewable energies (up to 25%), whilst less additional thermal power plant usage is needed. Furthermore, redispatch cost and the associated CO2 emissions are reduced by 3.3% to 13.9%. By contrast, using this flexibility as a market-based charging strategy raises CO2 emissions and redispatch costs drastically by 186% if 2 million electric vehicles are considered. Especially with the high electrification rate of the transport sector, the provided flexibility potential significantly impacts the electricity market. Further efforts could address the influence of demand-side flexibility not only on redispatch within one control area but also on cross-border redispatch and counter-trading.