The Contribution of Different Electric Vehicle Control Strategies to Dynamical Grid Stability

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that electric vehicles can effectively stabilize frequency in renewable-heavy power grids by modeling network structure and fluctuations, showing distributed control's superiority over centralized methods.

Contribution

First explicit modeling of network structure and non-Gaussian fluctuations in evaluating EV control strategies for grid stability.

Findings

EVs can fully eliminate frequency peaks

Demand synchronization reduces battery stress

Distributed control outperforms centralized control

Abstract

A major challenge for power grids with a high share of renewable energy systems (RES), such as island grids, is to provide frequency stability in the face of renewable fluctuations. In this work we evaluate the ability of electric vehicles (EV) to provide distributed primary control and to eliminate frequency peaks. To do so we for the first time explicitly model the network structure and incorporate non-Gaussian, strongly intermittent fluctuations typical for RES. We show that EVs can completely eliminate frequency peaks. Using threshold randomization we further demonstrate that demand synchronization effects and battery stresses can be greatly reduced. In contrast, explicit frequency averaging has a strong destabilizing effect, suggesting that the role of delays in distributed control schemes requires further studies. Overall we find that distributed control outperforms central one. The results are robust against a further increase in renewable power production and fluctuations.