IEEE EUROCON 2017, 6–8 JULY 2017, OHRID, R.
MACEDONIA
Vehicle-to-grid System Used to Regulate the
Frequency of a Microgrid
Snezana Cundeva
University Ss Cyril and Methodius
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information
Technologies
Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
Abstract—Electric cars in the worldwide vehicle stock have
reached sizeable growth since 2010. Besides proven benefits to
the sustainable development and wheel-to-wheel efficiency,
electric cars can provide side benefits to car owners and to power
system utility. Plug-in vehicles can behave either as loads or as a
distributed energy and power resource in a concept known as
vehicle-to-grid (V2G). This paper reviews the main grid services
that can be provided by the V2G technology. V2G system used to
regulate the frequency of a microgrid has been analyzed. The
analyzed microgrid is comprised of base power generation, a
mixture of renewable energy sources, load and an EV aggregator.
Different possible scenarios are taken account, for different
shadings of renewable energy production in the grid, different
sizes of residential load and different number of EVs. The results
show that V2G concept can provide efficient primary frequency
regulation in islanded operation of a microgrid with lower
spinning reserve.
Keywords—electric vehicles, vehicle-to-grid, aggregation,
microgrid, frequency control
I. INTRODUCTION
The number of electric vehicles (EVs) on European roads
has increased from practically zero in 2010 to 500000 in 2015
[1]. It is expected that this trend will increase in the coming
years having in mind the numerous advantages of EVs
compared to internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEV).
Some of the proven advantages are that EV’s overall efficiency
is a factor of about 3 higher than ICEV; EVs emit no CO2 and
other pollutants at the point of use; EVs provide quiet and
smooth operation and consequently create less noise and
vibration; EVs contain fewer moving parts and the drive has
simpler transmission [2].
Many European countries are encouraging the consumers to
buy and use EVs with different regulations and invectives
(purchase subsides, ownership benefits, free charging etc.)
including measures on local level that gives priority to EVs
(lower taxes for electric vehicles, free inner-city parking etc.).
The Netherlands is joining Denmark and Norway in discussing
the possibility of banning gas and diesel vehicles by 2025.
The EVs, the battery electric vehicles and the plug in hybrid
electric vehicle (in the remaining of the paper referred
generally as “EVs”) contain battery to power the electric
motor. The owners of EVs can charge the vehicle batteries at
home, at work or at parking facilities that contain fast chargers.
From the point of view of the electric grid, the electric vehicles
978-1-5090-3843-5/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
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Aleksandar Dimovski
University Ss Cyril and Methodius
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information
Technologies
Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
are not just another load in the grid. A large penetration of EVs
will not automatically need extra generation capacity in the
grid since the batteries are usually recharged at times of low
demand, such as overǦnight hours. The impact of a high EV
penetration scenario on peak load by primary substation is
studied in [3]. Even under very aggressive high uptake
scenario, the impact on peak load at each substation by 2030
ranges between 0-2%.
In [4] a solution is described where a parking provides
discount service for charging of sufficient electricity. EVs are
active energy consumers, often called “prosumers” because
they both consume and produce electricity. During periods
when the vehicles are not in use, accounting for over 90%
during their lifetime [5], the stored energy in the battery can be
returned back to the grid and in such cases the EVs are
becoming electricity producers.
Optimal participation of EVs in the balancing market would
require not only a scheduling of the charging but also
occasional discharging of the batteries when the price for
electricity is very high. This is often referred to as ‘vehicle to
grid’ or simply V2G [6]. More generally, V2G is the term used
to describe the system that enables the flow of power between
an electric system or grid and electric drive vehicles.
The basic concept of V2G is that EVs provide power to the
grid while parked, helping to even out the peak load and
stabilize the frequency of the grid. The V2G systems can
provide demand response services to the power grid, enhancing
the efficiency and stability of the system during heavy loads. A
V2G-capable vehicle offers reactive power support, active
power regulation, tracking of variable renewable energy
sources, load balancing and current harmonic filtering. These
technologies can enable ancillary services, such as voltage and
frequency control and spinning reserve. A very comprehensive
overview of different V2G systems is given in [7, 8].
To have real advantage of vehicle integration as energy
reserve in the grid it is necessary to account for fleet of EVs in
the grid that provide power at the same time. Most of the EVs
owners do not have the means to directly trade in the electricity
markets. In order to trade the energy stored in the battery, they
would require the services of an aggregator agent that would
represent the flexibility offered by many EV users. A dedicated
aggregator for trading flexibilities offered by EVs is the ’EV
aggregator’. EV aggregator is the term used to describe the
actor who controls the charging of an EV fleet, while fleet
could contain any number of EVs. For the grid, the aggregator
 IEEE EUROCON 2017, 6–8 JULY 2017, OHRID, R. MACEDONIA

is seen as a large controllable source of generation or load, Constant frequency is maintained with the aid of primary
which could provide ancillary services. and secondary load control. The EVs that are charging can
immediately provide the reserves needed. The EN50160
The aim of this paper is to assess the contribution of the standard [12] requires mandatory load shedding for frequency
electric vehicles (EVs) in improved security of supply in a levels of 49.0 Hz and below, starting with 5% of the total load
microgrid. In Section II, the future EV services in the grid will for a frequency deviation of 49.0 Hz. From 49.2 Hz and below,
be briefly described. In section III, V2G system used to support load shedding of customer consumption is allowed. EVs could
the frequency regulation of a microgrid will be evaluated. be used in under-frequency automatic load-shedding below this
Different possible scenarios will be taken into account for frequency value. Consumer load shedding is usually performed
different reductions of the electricity production in the by shedding distribution network feeders. If local frequency
microgrid, different load size and variable size of the EV fleet. measure equipment would be installed on EV charging points,
then shedding of complete feeders would be prevented.
II. EV AS ANCILLARY SERVICE IN THE GRID
In islanded electric grids, where frequency fluctuations tend
The increased penetration of EVs as specific consumers in to be greater, the EVs can provide primary frequency control
the grid will change the future of the modern grids. EVs play and thus enhance the stability of the electricity grid. In the large
double role as a transport mean and as electricity storage. In the interconnected systems the feasibility of EVs in primary
V2G mode of operation, the EV acts as a controllable load, as frequency control is uncertain due to the high costs to fulfill the
well as a storage unit. Peak shaving, congestion management, EN50160 supply voltage requirements. On the other hand, the
voltage control and micro-source operation are the most EVs can usefully provide stabilization in electrical grids with
frequently mentioned services in the literature [7-11]. low spinning reserve, such being the electric grids on small
The proper operation of a given power grid is highly islands and the microgrids in case of islanded mode of
dependent on maintaining load/generation balance at all times. operation.
Under normal conditions the system operates at nominal
frequency, maintaining the condition of equality of generated III. EV IN LOAD FREQUENCY REGULATION SERVICE
power and demand. Every load/generation imbalance that The impact on the electric utilities of large-scale adoption
occurs in the power grid is followed by a deviation in the of plug-in electric vehicles as prosumers has been analyzed.
system frequency. Such an event can be the reason for a The V2G system used to regulate the frequency of a microgrid
disruption in the constant speed and safe operation of the is based on the Simulink V2G model [16] and is presented in
synchronous generators, and the accuracy of electrical clocks. Fig. 1.
In order to keep the load/generation balance, the system
operator must provide different services procured from various
generating units on the market. Table I [4] shows the feasibility A. Model description
of V2G to support these different system services. Peak power The analyzed microgrid is comprised of a conventional
and spinning reserve are the system services that can benefit 15MW diesel generator, a mixture of renewable energy
from V2G. sources, load and an EV aggregator. This specific microgrid is
assumed to operate in an islanded mode.
TABLE I. MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF DIFFERENT
ELECTRICITY MARKETS The diesel generator, as the only production not dependent
System Base load Peak power Spinning Regulation on weather conditions, is providing load generation balance.
services reserve
Description Constant Fluctuating Quick Power for voltage There are 2 types of renewable energy sources in the
part of part of power for and frequency microgrid: PV farm that produces energy based on the covered
power power grid stabilization area by the panels and the irradiance data and Wind Farm that
demand demand failures produces energy based on the wind data. The rated power of
Utilization 24h/day 2-3h/day Short Very short PV farm is 4.5MW, while the Wind Farm rated power is 8MW.
time
Utilization - Once/day Low high The total number of aggregated EVs is a subject to change.
frequency The rated power of all charging stations in case of 100 EVs is
Cost low moderate High high 100x6.6kW. The power of 6.6kW per EV corresponds to Level
General Bulk Engine/gas Quick Battery/capacitor
feasibility power turbine power
2 charger. Level 2 equipment offers charging through a 230V,
plant generator AC plug and requires installation of home charging or public
Feasibility Bad Very good Very good good charging equipment. Level 2 charging equipment is compatible
of V2G with all electric vehicles and plug-in electric hybrid vehicles.
When the EV is used for peak shaving, the EV is parked There are 5 different user profiles, all of which are
and the energy stored in the battery is used during peak hours considered to have a charging station at their homes. The
to prevent more expensive conventional generators from characteristics of different user profiles are as follows:
operating.
Profile #1- People working from 8-4pm, with a 2 hour drive
For the purposes of congestion management and voltage to and from work and an available charging station at their
control part of the stored energy in the battery is injected into work place. These cars represent 35% of the total EV number.
the grid. In the most demanding case, the EV is used as a
Profile #2 – People working from 8-4pm, with a 3 hour
microgeneration unit in a market environment that injects
drive to and from work and an available charging station at
power into the electricity grids.
their work place. These cars represent 25% of the total EV
Possible other benefits of V2G are that the EVs can provide number.
ancillary services for frequency support [7, 13, 14, 15].

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 IEEE EUROCON 2017, 6–8 JULY 2017, OHRID, R. MACEDONIA

Fig.1. Simulink V2G model [16]

Profile #3 – People working from 8-4pm, with a 2 hour

drive and without a charging station at their workplace. These
cars represent 10% of the total EV number.
Profile #4 – People who don’t use their EVs in the course
of that day and that are connected to the grid 24 hours. These
cars represent 20% of the total EV number.
Profile #5 – People working from 20pm-4am, with a 2 hour
drive and without a charging station at their work place. These
cars represent 10% of the total EV number.
The total load consists of an asynchronous machine that
represents an inductive industry type load, and a residential
area comprised of 1000 households. The residential load
follows a consumption profile with a given power factor. Fig.2. Power generation patterns during 24 hours simulation

B. Simulation description and different scenarios C. V2G scenario in a grid with high spinning resreve
The simulation lasts 24 hours. Only PV output variations In the first scenario, the residential load’s nominal power is
are considered since this is the most intermittent renewable 10MW that corresponds to low consumption during a day in
resource for the modeled grid. An event that is simulated is the spring or fall. This scenario simulates a case with enough
partial shading at noon which affects the production of the PV spinning reserve in the system.
farm. The shading is represented with a reducing factor that is a
Table II presents the different values for the grid’s
fraction of the farm’s output power. The influence in the
frequency, once the partial shading has occurred reducing the
system frequency is assessed when different number of EVs is PV output from 80% to 20% of nominal rated power. The
used in primary frequency control. Primary control consists of number of EVs assumed varies from 0 to 200.
changing a generating unit’s power versus the frequency. The
objective of primary control is to re-establish a balance TABLE II. GRID FREQUENCY IN HZ FOR DIFFERENT
REDUCTION OF PV OUTPUT
between generation and demand within the synchronous area at
a frequency different from the nominal value. Fig. 2 shows the Number of EVs
Reducing factor (percent of nominal power)
microgrid production during the 24 hour simulation, along 20% 50% 80%
with the decreased output of the PV farm which happens at 0 49.47 49.65 49.85
noon and lasts for 5 minutes.
100 49.54 49.72 49.92
Two different scenarios are considered in order to
determine the type of grids that can benefit the most from such 200 49.60 49.79 49.94
implementation of EVs.
The data in Table II show that even during the biggest
decrease in the PV’s output EVs participation has insignificant
impact on the grid’s stability. Fig. 3 shows the deviation of the

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system frequency for the worst case – without EV’s and a
reducing factor of 0.2, while Fig. 4 shows the system’s
response for the same event, but with a V2G system comprised
of 100 EVs. These results show that in this scenario, even
though the V2G system causes an improvement related to the
number of frequency oscillations, such service is not necessary
since according to ENTSO-E the frequency remained within
the permissible limits. This is due to the fact that there is
enough spinning reserve in the system to cope with the given
load/generation imbalances.
Compared to Case 1, in this case the frequency deviation is
larger. The impact of the EVs working in V2G system is
visible. A fleet of 200 EVs stabilizes the grid frequency, albeit
even 100 EVs can have a positive impact on the grid’s response
to the given imbalance. This is particularly true for stabilization
of the quasi-stationary frequency.
The deviation of the frequency for the case without EVs is
presented in Figure 5. The system is unable to restore its
nominal frequency unless the PV farm restores to its full
power. If the PV farm continues producing lower output, the
system’s stability would be endangered.

Fig.3. System frequency without EVs

Fig. 5. System frequency in a grid with lower spinning reserve

Fig. 5 shows that the system is unable to stabilize the

frequency at nominal value of 50Hz, but instead restores to a
quasi-stationary value of 50+-200mHz. In order to fully restore
the frequency a secondary control should be activated. Such
reserve in the modeled grid doesn’t exist and therefore in case
of another unpredicted event (for example decrease in wind
farm production) would highly endanger the grid stability.
Within 5 minutes from the shading event at noon, the PV
farm production restores to its normal output, which causes
another spike in the frequency, after which it slowly oscillates
to its nominal value. Figure 6 shows the diesel generator’s
response during the event. The generator is unable to set a
Fig.4. System frequency with 100 EVs constant value for the output, and instead oscillates at around 8
MW. This is a consequence of the deficit of reserve in the grid.
D. V2G scenario in a grid with low spinning reserve
In the second scenario, the residential area’s nominal load
is increased by 33%, from 10 to 13.33 MW. The increased
consumption could be caused by extreme weather conditions
during a day in summer or winter. This scenario simulates a
grid with less spinning reserve.
Only the case with maximum partial shading with a
reducing factor of 0.2 has been analyzed, for different number
of EVs in the grid. The data for the maximum deviation of the
system frequency, along with the value for its quasi-stationary
value are presented in Table III.
TABLE III. GRID FREQUENCY IN HZ IN A GRID WITH LOW
SPINNING RESERVE
Maximum
Quasi-stationary Fig.6. Diesel generator output during the event
Number of EVs frequency
frequency value [Hz]
deviation [Hz]
Figure 7 shows the system frequency with 100 EVs present
0 49.30 49.80 in the V2G system. It can be seen that 100 EVs could greatly
100 49.48 49.97 improve the quasi-stationary and consequently improve grid
stability. In this case, with the reduced PV output, the
200 49.58 50+-200mHz frequency oscillates around +-30mHz which is acceptable.

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Fig.7. System frequency in a grid with lower spinning reserve and 100 EVs
IV. CONCLUSIONS
Although V2G operation might reduce the lifetime of
vehicle batteries [17] it is projected to become economical for
vehicle owners and grid operators. The V2G concept can
enable ancillary services, such as voltage and frequency control
and spinning reserve.
Sudden PV output variations were simulated in a microgrid
that contains a variable fleet of EVs that can provide V2G
service. Two situations were modeled for different sizes of the
residential load in the grid. It was found that in an islanded grid
with low spinning reserve the electric vehicles can improve the
stability of the grid.
A moderate penetration of 10% of EV in the microgrid,
assuming that 10% of the households have EV with V2G
capability, can improve the stability of the grid, providing
power to regulate the grid frequency when an event occurs
during the day. A ratio of 1:10 between EV and households in
the microgrid is foreseen as realistic in near future. With faster
chargers than the assumed 6.6kW, less than 10% of the
households would provide efficient grid stability.
Utilities should adopt technical and legislative solutions to
gain benefit of the expected larger penetration of EVs on the
roads. The increased penetration of EVs in the future would
cause an increase in the grid’s total load. This represents a
future scenario in which instead of investing in new generation
units, the system operator should invest in a well-organized
Aggregation of EVs. New incentives are needed to stimulate
electric vehicle owners to play an active role in grid stability,
providing an alternate source of income.
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Further knowledge is required about possible interaction
between V2G and other micro generation units, between EV
and the grid etc.
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