Value of Optimal Trip and Charging Scheduling of Commercial Electric Vehicle Fleets with Vehicle-to-Grid in Future Low Inertia Systems

TL;DR

This paper presents a mathematical framework for optimally scheduling trips and charging of commercial EV fleets with Vehicle-to-Grid technology, demonstrating significant revenue and carbon savings potential in future low-inertia power systems.

Contribution

It introduces a mixed-integer linear program for joint trip and charging scheduling, quantifying economic and environmental benefits for commercial EV fleets.

Findings

Optimal trip start times can boost revenue by up to 38% in summer.

Flexible scheduling increases fleet revenue and grid benefits, especially during peak solar output.

A fleet of 5,000 EVs can save as much CO2 as removing one gas turbine.

Abstract

The electrification of transport is seen as an important step in the global decarbonisation agenda. With such a large expected load on the power system from electric vehicles (EVs), it is important to coordinate charging in order to balance the supply and demand for electricity. Bidirectional charging, enabled through Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology, will unlock significant storage capacity from stationary EVs that are plugged in. To take this concept a step further, this paper quantifies the potential revenues to be gained by a commercial EV fleet operator from simultaneously scheduling its trips on a day-ahead basis, as well as its charging. This allows the fleet to complete its trips (with user defined trip length and distance), while taking advantage of fluctuating energy and ancillary services prices. A mathematical framework for optimal trip scheduling is proposed, formulated as a mixed-integer linear program, and is applied to several relevant scenarios of the present and future British electricity system. It is demonstrated that an optimal journey start time can increase the revenue of commercial fleets by up to 38% in summer and 12% in winter. This means a single EV from the maintenance fleet can make additional annual revenue of up to {\pounds}729. Flexible trip schedules are more valuable in the summer because keeping EVs plugged in during peak solar output will benefit the grid and the fleet operators the most. It was also found that a fleet of 5,000 EVs would result in the equivalent $\textrm{CO}_2$ of removing one Combined Cycle Gas Turbine from the system. This significant increase in revenue and carbon savings show this approach is worth investigating for potential future application.