Control of solar powered micro-grids using electric vehicles

• Main Authors: Udawatta, Lanka., Madawala, Udaya K., Muthumuni, Dharshana., Vilathgamuwa, D. Mahinda.
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/101942; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/16406
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Large scale solar plants are gaining recognition as potential energy sources for future. In this paper, the feasibility of using electric vehicles (EVs) to control a solar powered micro-grid is investigated in detail. The paper presents a PSCAD/EMTDC based model for the solar powered micro-grid with EVs. EVs are expected to have both the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and grid-to-vehicle (G2V) capability, through which energy can either be injected into or extracted from the solar powered micro-grid to control its energy imbalance. Using the model, the behaviour of the micro-grid is investigated under a given load profile, and the results indicate that a minimum number of EVs are required to meet the energy imbalance and it is time dependent and influenced by various factors such as depth of charge, commuting profiles, reliability etc..