EVs Charging Power Control Participating in Supplementary Frequency Stabilization for Microgrids: Uncertainty and Global Sensitivity Analysis

Abstract

Electric vehicle (EV) potential has broadly been highlighted in providing ancillary services in a microgrid, such as grid reserve and regulation support. However, uncertain behaviors of EV charging raise crucial concerns for both the utilities and EV owners. In this paper, the impacts of EV charging uncertainties for EV charging power control participating in supplementary frequency stabilization are assessed separately based on the two perspectives, i.e., power capacity for the utility perspective and expected EV energy for the EV owner perspective. On the one hand, the power capacity accessed by the utility directly relates to the stabilization capability, which depends on the number of EVs that are willing to participate in the frequency stabilization program and the rated charging power of EV. On the other hand, the variance of expected EV energy realized by the EV owners is considered in terms of the remaining state of charge (SoC), energy capacity, and available charging time. Besides, a variance-based global sensitivity analysis (GSA) is essentially applied to identify the influential parameters of these uncertainties. The simulation studies are conducted using a microgrid environment via DIgSILENT Powerfactory software to reveal such impacts of EV charging uncertainties based on the two perspectives. The results indicate that the number of participating EVs is the most influential parameter for frequency stabilization capability, followed by the rated charging power of EV. From the EV owner’s perspective, the energy capacity is the dominant parameter affecting the expected EV energy variance, followed by the remaining energy and available charging time.

Keywords

• Charging power control
• electric vehicle (EV)
• frequency stabilization
• microgrid
• global sensitivity analysis (GSA)
• uncertainty