A virtual power plant management model based on electric vehicle charging infrastructure distribution

The exploitation of distributed generation based on intermittent renewable energy sources (RES) has increased the load and generation profile variability. The resort to distributed energy storage systems (DESSs) is usually proposed to compensate the volatility introduced by RES. In particular, plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) are considered one of the most interesting solutions for providing DESSs with the aim of exploiting RES production and matching the distributed electrical generation to the local demand. The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of vehicle-to-grid technology on an weakly interconnected Virtual Power Plant (VPP) in order to evaluate the effects that distribution and availability of EVs charging structures can have on VPP total cost. A novel mathematical modeling of the mobility system is firstly developed to calculate the probabilistic distribution of parking places. Thereafter, the economic impact on a VPP has been evaluated for different plug-in ratio and charging station scenarios.