ICT based performance evaluation of control reserve provision using electric vehicles

Traditional energy networks with centralized supply are moving towards smart grids with distributed generation. The conventional form of large power plants will be replaced by the nationwide expansion of volatile renewable energies, but is intended to provide comparable or similar monitoring and control options. Concepts of virtual power plants provide an information and communication technology (ICT) linking of distributed systems and thus enable a centralized energy management. In this context electric mobility provides great opportunities to increase the grid stability, by making batteries of electric vehicles (EVs), which are connected to charging infrastructure, available as buffer in the low voltage grid. This paper presents a performance evaluation of an ICT solution for integration of EVs in grid balancing services in the example of Minute Reserve (MR) provision. Therefore, the communication effort is determined using an implemented evaluation tool and simulation environment for analyzing different scenarios. Results show that the evaluated communication effort enables MR provision using EVs in each implemented configuration. Beyond, we illustrate that the implementation of a Local Controller within parking area scenarios reduces the communication effort by 93 %.