Vehicle-to-grid feasibility: A techno-economic analysis of EV-based energy storage

Abstract The potential for electric vehicles to obtain income from energy supplied to a commercial building together with revenue accruing from specific ancillary service markets in the UK is evaluated in this work. A hybrid time-series/probabilistic simulation environment using real-world data is described, which is applied in the analysis of electricity trading with vehicle-to-grid to vehicles, buildings and markets. Key parameters are found to be the electric vehicle electricity sale price, battery degradation cost and infrastructure costs. Three vehicle-to-grid scenarios are evaluated using pool vehicle trip data, market pricing index data and half-hourly electricity demand for a commercial building. Results show that provision of energy to the wholesale electricity market with additional income from the capacity market results in the greatest projected return on investment, producing an individual vehicle net present value of ∼£8400. This is over 10 years for a vehicle supplying energy three times per week to the half-hour day-ahead market and includes the cost of installing the vehicle-to-grid infrastructure. The analysis also shows that net income generation is strongly dependent upon battery degradation costs associated with vehicle-to-grid cycling.