Agent-coordinated virtual power plants of electric vehicles

Challenges with energy provision due to intermittent renewable energy sources can be addressed with information systems in smart energy markets. One specific solution is virtual power plants (VPP) of electric vehicles (EV). The operation of the VPP is agent controlled, so that cars are charged when market prices on the wholesale market signal excess capacity and turn into a power plant when market prices signal a need for additional energy supply. We show that due to a low utilization of EVs, its storage in idle status can be used by owners of large EV fleets to trade energy on the electricity wholesale market. We scrutinize and evaluate a trading strategy under different scenarios of battery cost developments for large EV fleets owners in the simulation platform Power TAC against the triple bottom line (people, planet, profit). Findings indicate that people pay lower electricity prices under widespread adoption of VPPs of EVs. In addition to that results show a decrease in CO₂ emissions for the planet. Finally profits for fleet owners of EV parks are boosted, which decreases with growing market adoption.