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Electric vehicles charging in a smart microgrid supplied with wind energy

Conference Paper · June 2013

DOI: 10.1109/PTC.2013.6652095

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 Electric Vehicles Charging in a Smart Microgrid
Supplied with Wind Energy
Stéphane Allard Phen Chiak See
Grenoble Institute of Marta Molinas
Technology, France. Olav Bjarte Fosso
Norwegian University of Science
and Technology, Norway.
Abstract—This paper compares the performance of smart
charging and dumb charging applied to Electric Vehicles (EVs) by
implementing a simulation model. The model was developed based on
the trend of current electric vehicle adoption in Norway. The electrical
network system considered includes wind turbine to supply electric
power to a group of 38 households. The assumed scenario is that the
households own 31 EVs, which is equivalent to 60% of current EV
adoption in Norway. The network is an almost stand-alone network
as it mainly relies on wind power and if needed, power is purchased
from the Nordic spot market. The obtained results indicate that the
smart charging has several advantages if it is used with the support of
energy storage: it prevents the event of peaks in electricity demand,
it increases the use of wind power and it reduces the dependency
from the spot market.
Keywords—Electric vehicles charging; smart microgrid; electricity
market.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Since 2008 and the Agreement on Norway’s climate policy
(Klimaforliket), large scale adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs)
has become a priority in Norway in order to reduce its
CO2 emissions [1]. Indeed, owners of EVs are granted
many benefits such as no purchase taxes, no charges on
toll roads, free municipal parking, free access to bus lanes.
This politic measures have a strong impact on the EVs sales
as they were increased by 227% between 2009 and 2012
(www.gronnbil.no/, accessed: February 13, 2013 ). As
a result, in September 2012, there were more than 8,000
EVs in Norway and the actual EV adoption trend should be
accelerated as some institutions have set a goal of 50,000 to
100,000 EVs by 2020 (www.elbil.no/, accessed: February
13, 2013 ).
Therefore, if the increase of EVs in Norway keeps the same
rate of adoption, in the near future EVs will have the potential
to greatly impact the Norwegian power network. Indeed, when
EVs are being recharged, they can deeply modify the voltage
profile in the power network [2], [3]. For this main reason, the
charging of EVs must be scheduled intelligently (a concept
called smart charging ) and also it will offer the possibility to
reduce peaks in electricity demand [4], [5].
∗ The authors would like to thank Grenoble Institute of Technology,
Norwegian University of Science and Technology and NTE Nett AS for
supporting this research.
Jan Andor Foosnæs
NTE Nett AS, Norway.
In order to analyse the effects of smart charging of EVs,
a network where a majority of vehicles are electric was
modelled. As shown on Fig.1, this network is an almost
stand-alone power network which is mainly supplied by wind
turbine. However, in some cases, wind generation is not
enough therefore the microgrid is connected to the regional
grid so that the demand is always satisfied.
The network has the following characteristics: the wind
turbines supply electricity to 38 households and based on the
current trend of EV adoption, 31 EVs are integrated in this
micro-grid. This account for 60% of the total vehicles available
(www.ssb.no, accessed: August 3, 2012). The wind turbines
are supported by local energy storage whose capacities have
been set to 250kWh. Moreover, the maximum limit of power
transmission is constrained to 380kW [6].
Concerning energy storage, different technologies are
available depending on the topography of the area studied.
In general, in Norway pumped-storage hydropower could be
a good option. Indeed, in 2010, the Norwegian power system
had 95% hydropower generation which represented a capacity
reservoir of 84.3 TWh and 4% of these total hydro capacities
were pumped storage capacities representing a total capacity
of 1, 336MW [7], [8]. This option of energy storage is also
one of the most used technologies in the world [9]. However,
this paper analyses the EVs adoption in a district situated
in Steinkjer, Norway, where such technology does not exist.
Therefore it has been assumed that a batteries bank will be
used as local energy storage.
As the global objective of the microgrid is to minimize the
total cost of electricity, some assumptions were made: cost of
wind generation in Norway is set to 64 Euro/MWh [10]; and
cost of storage generation is equal to 50 Euro/MWh [11]. Cost
of storage is set to a low value as actual costs are expected to
decrease in the future [12].
The impact of EVs in this network was analysed through
two different scenarios: dumb and smart charging. Smart
charging was implemented with an algorithm which optimizes
the scheduling of the EVs charging under the two main
constraints of maximum limit of power transmission and a
charging profile. The optimization process aims at minimizing
the cost of the microgrid while respecting all the constraints.
 Fig. 2. Hourly electricity demand from 38 households//in Nord-Trøndelag,
Norway .

Fig. 1. Single line diagram of the electrical network used in simulations.

The second main objective of the microgrid is to be as

stand-alone as possible with the use of wind as main source of
power. The use of energy storage can help to fulfil this goal
and therefore two sub-cases (microgrid without the support
of energy storage and microgrid with the support of energy
Fig. 3. Hourly wind speed at Nord-Trøndelag, Norway.
storage) were studied to analyse its performance.
This paper is organized as follows: Section II presents the
method of the work with a description of the algorithm used
for smart scheduling, then in Section III important results
are shown and discussed. The final section concludes on the
present work and discusses how it can be further expanded.
II. T HE M ETHOD
Two EVs charging scenarios were studied: (1) the use of
wind energy in the microgrid without the support of energy
storage, and (2) the use of wind energy in the microgrid with
the support of energy storage. Two schemes for each of the Fig. 4. Hourly spot prices of electricity in Nord Pool spot market.
scenarios were investigated: (a) dumb charging of EVs, and
(b) smart charging of EVs. Therefore the number of EVs, which are connected to the grid
Different assumptions were made for the two schemes: and can be recharged, is known for each hour of the day. The
in scheme (a), people plug their EVs daily at 15:00 and it total charging capacity of the battery in the EVs is equal to
starts charging immediately while in scheme (b), proper smart 24kWh, which is fully charged within 4 hours [15] meaning
charging is used with appropriate communication techniques that the battery charge rate is equal to 6kWh/h. Moreover it
[13], [14]. The performance of these schemes were compared has been assumed that the full-charging is repeated daily. Thus,
to identify the advantages of smart charging. batteries are completely drained prior to every new charging
The simulation analysis was implemented with MATLAB R
, cycle.
which uses several input data recorded in December 2010: The simulation model was built for time, t ∈ {1, . . . , 24},
i Hourly electricity demand from 38 households located in generations, g ∈ {1, . . . , G}, and demands, d ∈ {1, . . . , D}
Nord-Trøndelag region, Norway (Fig.2); based on the algorithm available in Fig.5.
ii Hourly wind speed at 50m height in Nord-Trøndelag In order to calculate the generated wind power, the
region (Fig.3); and behaviour of the 500kW wind turbine is based on the
iii Hourly spot prices of electricity power (Fig.4). behaviour of two real models from wind turbine manufacturer
In December 22, 2010, the electricity demand and peak Enercon (E33 and E48). Therefore, Pgw,t is determined by
power reached their highest point. Indeed, the 38 households using the hourly wind speed (see Fig.3) and the resulting
consumed 4.9MWh with a peak power of 340.6kW. Therefore power curve of the wind turbine.
the analysis of the results has been confined on this day which As wind power generation is the main source in the
becomes the worst case scenario. micro-grid, for each hour t, two cases are available depending
The charging profile of EVs mentioned in [15] has been on wind power generation and power demand. This is
used in the model as a constraint to the scheduling of EVs. implemented in the model as follows:
 Calculate → wind power generation for all day
A. Case 1
For time , t from 1 to 24:
If at hour t, the generated wind power, Pgw,t is more than or Calculate →P
equal to the power demand, Pdt then energy storage capacities G PD
Case 1, g=1 Pgw,t ≥ d=1 Pdt
are being recharged to capture the high wind power generation ( G )
D
(see eq.(1) in Fig.5). t t−1
X
w,t
X
t
The charging of energy storage capacities is subjected to Ps = Ps + Pg − Pd (1)
g=1 d=1
storage limitations with Pst ≤ 250kWh; where Pst is the power
stored in the energy storage at time t. with Pst ≤ 250kWh
Therefore, the cost of operation, C t of the entire microgrid ( D
)
for this hour t is calculated following eq.(2) in Fig.5; where t
X
C = Cgw,t · Pdt + Pst − Pst−1 (2)
Cgw,t is the cost of operation of wind turbines at time t.
d=1
PG PD
B. Case 2 Case 2, Pgw,t < d=1 Pdt
g=1
Similarly if at hour t, Pgw,t is less than the demand, Pdt ( G D
)
then to maintain the balance between generation and demand
X X
t t−1 w,t t
Ps = Ps + Pg − Pd (3)
energy storage is used (see eq.(3) in Fig.5) until the point g=1 d=1
where there is no stored energy.
In this particular case where energy storage is not with Pst ≤ 250kWh
G
sufficient to keep the balance between production and demand, X
C t = C w,t · Pgw,t + Cst · |Pst − Pst−1 |
distribution grid operators will buy the amount of electricity
g=1
needed from the spot market . ( )
D
Therefore, the cost of operation, C t of the entire microgrid spot,t
X
+C · Pdt − Pgw,t − |Pst − Pst−1 |
for this hour t is calculated following eq.(4) in Fig.5; where
d=1
C spot,t is the price of electricity in spot market at time t; and (4)
Cst is the cost of energy storage at time t.
Based on the data provided by IEA in 2010 [10], [11], data Determine → optimal charging profile s.t:
costs of production were set as follows and used to calculate 24
X
the total cost for the microgrid: F = min Ct (5)
- Cost of wind generation in Norway: Cgw,t = 64 Euro/MWh; t=1
- Cost of storage generation: Cst = 50 Euro/MWh.
Fig. 5. Load shifting procedure implemented in this work
The optimization process aims at finding the minimum of
the total cost of operation for one day for both scenarios (see
eq.(5) in Fig.5); where F is a generic symbol of objective constrained transmission capacity. This is not observed when
function. smart charging is used (see Fig.6b).
During the different steps of the algorithm, at each hour Indeed, EVs have been recharged at another time period
t, the objective function F is subjected to the constraints of from the peak which was created by the households alone.
maximum number of EVs connected to the grid and maximum 22 electric vehicles were being recharged between 3:00 and
peak in power consumption. 7:00 in the morning while the charging of the others ones was
scheduled at the end of the day. However it can be observed
III. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSIONS
that when smart charging is used demand reaches a peak of
The results obtained from the simulation are shown in Fig.6. 302.3kW at 5:00 which is still lower than the maximum peak
They are interpreted as follows: load of that day (340.6kW at 14:00).
ii.) Increased use of wind power
A. Scenario 1 When dumb charging is applied, generated wind power is
In the first scenario, the effects of smart charging without already less than power demand for houses only and therefore
support of energy storage were analysed and two main electricity must be purchased from the spot market by the
characteristics when smart charging is applied alone can be distribution grid operator so that the EVs are recharged. As
underlined: a result, during this particular day, dumb charging does not
i.) Prevention of peaks in electricity demand promote the use of wind.
When smart charging is applied, maximum peak power is On the opposite, smart charging schedules the charging of
kept below the maximum allocated power (380kW) unlike the EVs such that most of them are being charged in the
dumb charging which has increased the peak power value. morning when the grid is supplied with high wind power,
This unfavoured peak in electricity demand occurred while the rest of them are being charged between 20:00 and
between 15:00 and 17:00 in Fig.6a. The total demand at that 24:00 for the similar reason. Indeed, wind power generation
instance reaches 526.6kW, which is 38.6% higher than the is on average 79% higher than household demand during 3:00
 Load demand EV charging Load demand EV charging
Wind production
power Max. capacity Stored energy Wind power
Spot price Maximum
Max. capacity
capacity Spot price

600 200 600 200

Spot price [€/MWh]

Spot price [€/MWh]

Consumption [kWh/h]

Consumption [kWh/h]
500 500
150 150
400 400
300 100 300 100
200 200
50 50
100 100
0 0 0 0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23
Time [Hours] Time [Hours]
(a) (c)
Load demand EV charging Load demand EV charging
Wind power Max. capacity Stored energy Wind power
Spot price Maximum
Max. capacity
capacity Spot price

600 200 Spot price [€/MWh] 600 200

Spot price [€/MWh]

Consumption [kWh/h]

Consumption [kWh/h]
500 500
150 150
400 400
300 100 300 100
200 200
50 50
100 100
0 0 0 0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23
Time [Hours] Time [Hours]
(b) (d)

Fig. 6. Results obtained from simulation analysis implemented with the mathematical model described in Section II. They represent the electricity usage in:
(a) scenario 1 scheme a; (b) scenario 1 scheme b; (c) scenario 2 scheme a; and (d) scenario 2 scheme b.

and 7:00 and also 97% higher at the end of the day. One can Moreover, on an economic point of view, in each scenario
see that the new peak observed at 5:00 resulted from the better where smart has been applied, EVs charging and storage
use of the high wind power generation. charging are performed when spot prices are at their lowest (≈
This promotes the use of 94.1% of total wind power, which 94 Euro/MWh) while in dumb charging scenarios, spot prices
is 13.7% more than those used in the dumb charging case. are higher when EVs are being charged (≈ 140 Euro/MWh).
Therefore, applying smart charging helps to reduce economic
B. Scenario 2 dependency on the spot market.
In the second scenario, energy storage was implemented to ii.) Increased use of wind power
support the wind turbine and two main characteristics of the The energy storage captured higher share of power from
use of energy storage can be underlined: wind turbines, while promoting the use of wind energy. Indeed,
i.) Reduces the dependency on the spot market they are being recharged when wind power generation is above
In both charging scenarios, the energy storage reduced the power demand and they are used when wind power generation
dependency of the microgrid on the spot market. It assisted is below power demand. Electricity which was previously
dumb charging to reduce the use of power imported from the bought from the spot market (see Fig.6b) has been substituted
main grid by 12.4% (Fig.6c). Nevertheless, the constrained by electricity produced through wind turbines. Finally, 92.1%
transmission capacity is violated in this case. of wind power is consumed in the dumb charging case while
Similarly, when smart charging is used the micro-grid 98.6% is consumed in the smart charging case. A similar
increases its independence toward the main grid as the power test conducted on the entire month showed that the energy
purchased from the Nordpool spot market has been reduced storage captured 61.7% of surplus from wind turbines. In
by 7%(see Fig.6d). Moreover, the constrained transmission this simulation, percentage of wind power consumed by the
capacity is not violated while the grid consumed more wind households cannot be increased further as energy storage is
power. constrained to 250kWh.
 Moreover, the increase in use of wind energy between
the two schemes plays an effective role in reducing the
dependency on the spot market.
IV. C ONCLUSIONS
After running the simulation for an entire month, the results
were analysed for December 22, 2010 as it is the worst case
scenario. The total costs of operation of the microgrid and
the maximum peak power value for this particular day were
calculated for each of the scenarios and schemes investigated
and gathered in Table I.
TABLE I
P EAK POWER AND COST OF ELECTRICITY IN THE MODEL .
Parameters Scenario 1 Scenario
Dumb Smart Dumb
Peak power [kW] 526.6 340.6 526.6
Cost [Euro/kWh] 0.10 0.10 0.08
It is evident that the use of smart charging with the
support of energy storage reduces the cost of operation of the
microgrid. Indeed, cost of electricity is reaches its lowest point
with 0.07 Euro/MWh while it would cost 0.10 Euro/MWh if
no energy storage were used.
Hence, the main conclusion is that the use of dumb charging
of EVs in the microgrid creates unwanted peak beyond the
constrained transmission capacity. On the other hand, smart
charging of EVs is able to regulate the power in the microgrid,
thus smoothing the electricity supply. The implementation of
smart charging with the support of energy storage further
increases the use of wind power in the microgrid.
In future, the study could be expanded by including
large scale optimization in the model. This is needed if the
study is to be implemented on larger scale power systems.
Furthermore, load flow analysis could be implemented on the
power network to assess the feasibility of the power profile in
terms of voltage variability.
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