Intelligent Vehicle Integration

Electric vehicles can function as aggregated power plants, demand response resources, energy storage devices, and backup power systems. Yet there remains a lack of consensus regarding the role these functions will play as well as their value, technical readiness, and near- and long-term commercial viability. The Intelligent Electric Vehicle Integration Project (INVENT) demonstrated how vehicle-to-grid technology bidirectional electric vehicles combined with unidirectional electric vehicles and a third-party intelligent collection and control platform can benefit utility customers. Benefits increase by managing demand charges in response to retail electric prices, coordinating with rooftop solar energy production, responding as a virtual power plant to frequency regulation signals from the California Independent System Operator, and engaging in aggregated demand response bids. The project included a variety of commercially available electric vehicles and charging stations using several different communications protocols and power capacities in multiple locations distributed across the University of California, San Diego microgrid to represent a commercial rollout scenario. INVENT intentionally included drivers with diverse use and charging patterns to allow the research team to assess the appropriateness of the use cases being analyzed. The aggregation platform successfully coordinated and controlled electric vehicle charging and discharging to provide demand charge, renewable energy optimization, frequency regulation, and demand response services while meeting the mobility needs of drivers. The project assessed existing values and compensation opportunities for the provided services. The project identified gaps in current rules and unintentional disincentives that policy makers can mitigate to unlock the potential of electric vehicles as distributed energy resources.