Impact of electric vehicles flexibility on generation expansion planning

Demand flexibility and its smart coordination with system objectives attract significant interest due to the increasing penetration of uncontrollable renewable generation into the system and the envisaged electrification of transport and heat sectors. Developed generation expansion planning models have ignored so far technology-specific inter-temporal constraints of flexible demand. Electric vehicles constitute one of the most representative technologies and exhibit a particularly important penetration and flexibility potential. This paper proposes a novel generation expansion planning modelling and optimization framework, in which the operational flexibility and constraints of electric vehicles, as well as the generation side´s scheduling constraints are explicitly incorporated. The computational burden is tackled through the use of integer instead of binary generation investment and commitment decision variables. Case studies in the context of UK demonstrate the potential impact of electric vehicles´ flexibility on the optimal generation mix, and its significant economic and environmental value.