Coordinated Operation of Electric Vehicle Parking Lots and Smart Homes as a Virtual Power Plant

摘要

In recent years, virtual power plants (VPPs) rose as an effective framework to aggregate the collective potential of distributed energy resources (DERs), including distributed generation (DG) and energy storage systems (ESS), through demand response (DR) program implementation. In this work, the operation of two indispensable DER assets, electric vehicles (EVs) and photovoltaic-equipped parking lots (PVPLs), is coordinated in an optimal energy management framework, in order to study their possible aggregation as a VPP. The proposed energy management system (EMS) was developed using the optimization and simulation tools, namely GAMS and MATLAB, and is intended for use by grid operators to coordinate the operation of PVPLs and home energy management systems (HEMSs) in the context of smart cities. The developed model was validated and tested by considering real-life case studies in the city of Porto, Portugal.