Optimal planning of a virtual power plant hosting an EV parking lot

Abstract

With the increasing penetration of electric vehicles (EV) in the future, VPPs can take some actions for meeting their demand. This way, VPPs can increase their income by selling electric power to EVs and utilizing the battery of EVs as energy storage to facilitate the deployment of renewable energy resources. However, investing too much in charging stations may not have an acceptable return on investment. In this paper, we study the optimal operation and planning of a VPP which is located to certain part of the network and is composed of wind turbines, PV units, as well as unidirectional and bidirectional EV charging stations. In our proposed approach, optimal planning is done considering that the system will be operated optimally. According to the simulation results, EV owners' behavior could have a significant impact on the optimal planning decision of the VPP. In addition, optimal number of the unidirectional and bidirectional EV charging stations depend on the share of the PV and wind generation and the capacity of the line between the VPP and upstream grid.