Impact of e-mobility participation in the ancillary service market on the operation of high-density urban low voltage distribution networks

Abstract

The present paper investigates the opportunities given by the participation of electric mobility in the ancillary service (AS) market, including the analysis of the impact of the charging process on the operation of urban distribution networks. Requested ASs are supplied by electric vehicles (EVs) through the optimal scheduling of their charging requests based on a heuristic algorithm. The impact of such ASs provision on the operation of the distribution grid is assessed. If grid technical limits are exceeded, the flexibility offered by the resources other than those provided by EVs (i.e., distributed generators, active customers, storage, etc.) is evaluated for solving the operation criticalities. Such evaluation is assessed by deploying a hierarchical multi-agent control system capable of handling the flexibility provided by the small resources managed through an aggregator. The validity of the proposed approach has been proved on a realistic scenario, modeling the Italian high-density urban low voltage distribution networks.