Electric Vehicles’ User Charging Behaviour Simulator for a Smart City

The increase of variable renewable energy generation has brought several new challenges to power and energy systems. Solutions based on storage systems and consumption flexibility are being proposed to balance the variability from generation sources that depend directly on environmental conditions....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bruno Canizes, João Soares, Angelo Costa, Tiago Pinto, Fernando Lezama, Paulo Novais, Zita Vale
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-04-01
Series:Energies
Subjects:
EVs
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/8/1470
Description
Summary:The increase of variable renewable energy generation has brought several new challenges to power and energy systems. Solutions based on storage systems and consumption flexibility are being proposed to balance the variability from generation sources that depend directly on environmental conditions. The widespread use of electric vehicles is seen as a resource that includes both distributed storage capabilities and the potential for consumption (charging) flexibility. However, to take advantage of the full potential of electric vehicles’ flexibility, it is essential that proper incentives are provided and that the management is performed with the variation of generation. This paper presents a research study on the impact of the variation of the electricity prices on the behavior of electric vehicle’s users. This study compared the benefits when using the variable and fixed charging prices. The variable prices are determined based on the calculation of distribution locational marginal pricing, which are recalculated and adapted continuously accordingly to the users’ trips and behavior. A travel simulation tool was developed for simulating real environments taking into account the behavior of real users. Results show that variable-rate of electricity prices demonstrate to be more advantageous to the users, enabling them to reduce charging costs while contributing to the required flexibility for the system.
ISSN:1996-1073