Quantifying energy flexibility of commuter plug-in electric vehicles within a residence–office coupling virtual microgrid. Part II: Case study setup for scenario and sensitivity analysis

Abstract

Continuing with the model and methods proposed in Part I for the optimal coordination and flexibility evaluation of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), we further conducted a case study to assess the energy flexibility of commuter PEVs in a virtual microgrid in Beijing, consisting of distributed RES system, an office and residences. We first presented a parametric mobility model for generating individual driving profiles of commuter PEVs. The validation results indicated the feasibility of the model in capturing the mobility characteristics of commuter vehicles in Beijing. On that basis, the flexibility of PEVs for different charging schemes and renewable generation portfolios was evaluated. The results indicated that the expansion of charging locations primarily increases the flexibility potential for reducing power ramps, meanwhile, activating the Vehicle-to-Building (V2B) function mostly improve the potential for reducing energy and power capacity. By contrast, the charging locations expansion takes priority to the V2B capability. Finally, we further analyzed how the flexibility is influenced by PEV numbers, charging parameters and reserve levels. The results showed that the daily net load profile of the microgrid could be nearly flattened when the PEV battery storage quota per unit office area reaches 0.18 kWh/m2 in the studied case.