Economic analysis of the microgrid with multi-energy and electric vehicles

Electric vehicles (EVs) may play dual roles when they plug in a microgrid. They appear as loads during charging, meanwhile they may also be used as storage units to supply energy to the rest loads in the microgrid if the batteries have the sufficient spare energy. Considering the characteristic of bidirectional energy flow of EVs in a microgrid, this paper proposes the energy dispatch model and strategies for the microgrid including Wind generators, Photovoltaic systems, Battery storages, EVs and other local loads to analyze the impact of incorporating vehicles within and without microgrid on the economic operation of the microgrid. The simulation results indicate that incorporating EVs within the microgrid can not only minimize the capital cost of storages and reduce operation cost of the microgrid´s operator, but also save the cost of EVs´s owners.