Vehicle-to-ski: A V2G optimization-based cost and environmental analysis for a ski resort

Abstract

Ski resorts are becoming perfect demonstrations for the integration of renewable sources. Moreover, the ever-growing global fleet of electric cars (EV) and the increase of battery capacities allow the vehicles to be used for purposes other than driving. This paper aims to study the implementation of a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) application and the development of an MPC-based energy management system (EMS) within a ski resort in the Trentino-Alto Adige Italian region. Using real data for load and production power estimation, the study analyses the economic and environmental impact in three different scenarios by considering the resort’s future trends. The results show that photovoltaic power generation has a significant impact on both cost and environmental aspects, leading to a reduction in total expenditure and CO2 of about 7%. However, assuming an increasing number of charging stations, the exploitation of V2G technology for energy arbitrage does not lead to significant total cost and CO2 reductions (≈2%) for the future scenarios. Conversely, self-consumption improves (≈100%) using different charging strategies. Despite this, a sensitivity analysis on PV production and a joint increase in EVs and energy price gap leads to a significant reduction in total costs of up to 7.7% and 15.2%, respectively.