Estimation of cost savings from participation of electric vehicles in vehicle to grid (V2G) schemes

The storage capacity of the batteries in an electric vehicle (EV) could be utilised to store electrical energy and give it back to the grid when needed by participating in vehicle to grid (V2G) schemes. This participation could be a source of revenue for vehicle owners thus reducing the total charging cost of their EVs. A V2G simulator has been developed using MATLAB to find out the potential cost saving from participation of EVs in V2G schemes. A standard IEEE30 network has been modelled in the simulator which uses the MATPOWER engine to undertake power flow analysis. A novel control algorithm has been developed to take advantage of the difference between the selling and buying electricity prices by charging and discharging EVs at the appropriate time. Two scenarios are simulated to compare the total charging cost of EVs with or without the utilisation of V2G technology within the power system assuming a total of 5000 EVs. The results of the simulation show that the applied control strategy with V2G is able to reduce the charging cost of EVs by 13.6 % while satisfying the minimum requirement for state of charge (SoC) of the EV batteries to complete their next journey.