Mind the goal: Trade-offs between flexibility goals for controlled electric vehicle charging strategies

Abstract

Summary: Electrification is one of the main decarbonization strategies for transportation. While uncontrolled electric vehicle (EV) charging can challenge the electricity system, controlled EV charging can offer flexibility. Using an agent-based model, we simulate combinations of two elements of EV charging, plug-in behaviors and controlled-charging processes, and measure flexibility goals with four metrics: total load shift, increase in midday load, peak reduction, and flatness of the load curve. We reveal trade-offs between these flexibility goals, which indicate that the most beneficial combinations are specific to spatial areas and their flexibility goals. Furthermore, we find that controlled-charging processes show higher impact on the flexibility metrics than plug-in behaviors, particularly with high EV and charging-station diffusion, but less so in rural areas. Incentivizing beneficial combinations can increase the flexibility potential of EV charging and potentially avoid grid reinforcements.

Keywords

• Energy Modeling
• Energy policy
• Energy resources
• Energy transportation