The role of electric vehicles on a green island

This paper investigates the potential of electric vehicles (EVs) to support a high penetration of renewable energy generation on the Portuguese island of Flores. By acting as responsive loads capable of delivering energy back to the grid, EVs can potentially reduce shortages or surplus of wind generation and minimize the use of backup diesel generation. The electricity demand, transportation patterns, wind power generation and electricity price are modeled based on a combination of data from Flores and other countries. Optimal charge policies of a fleet of EVs are defined using a dynamic programming algorithm. The results indicate that the controlled charging of EVs leads to a significant reduction in the deployment of backup generation capacity. Furthermore, the amount of spilled wind energy is reduced strongly, which has obvious economic advantages. The most important conclusion from this work is that the total emissions due to transport and electricity generation can be reduced by as much as 90% compared to the situation where all electricity and transportation demand is met by diesel.