Primary Frequency Control

Abstract: A high penetration level of renewable energy sources such as wind power turbines and solar photovoltaic generation, in micro-grid systems causes some problems to micro-grid operator, e.g., lack in primary reserve. Recently, many countries around the world decided to increase their electric vehicles in the near future which provide a good chance to use them as a battery energy storage system (BESS). This paper proposes a new scheme to provide necessary primary reserve from electric vehicles by using multi-agent control of each individual vehicle. The proposed scheme determines the primary reserve based on vehicle’s information such as initial state of charge (SOC), the required SOC for the next trip, and the vehicle’s departure time. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is shown by the simulation study in a micro-grid with several generation units such as diesel engine generator (DEG), flywheel, fuel cell, renewable energy resources, and electric vehicles.


Keywords: electric vehicle, primary frequency control, multi-agent control, renewable energies.

The increased penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) and electric vehicles (EVs) is resulting in significant challenges to the stability, reliability, and resiliency of the electrical grid due to the intermittency nature of RES and uncertainty of charging demands of EVs. There is a potential for significant economic returns to use vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology for peak load reduction and frequency control. To verify the effectiveness of the V2G-based frequency control in a microgrid, modeling and simulations of single-and multi-vehicle-based primary and secondary frequency controls were conducted to utilize the integrated components at the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology (CCHT)-V2G testing facility by using MATLAB/Simulink. A single-vehicle-based model was validated by comparing empirical testing and simulations of primary and secondary frequency controls. The validated conceptual model was then applied for dynamic phasor simulations of multi-vehicle-based frequency control with a proposed coordinated control algorithm for improving frequency stability and facilitating renewables integration with V2G-capable EVs in a microgrid. This proposed model includes a decentralized coordinated control of the state of charge (SOC) and charging schedule for five aggregated EVs with different departure times and SOC management profiles preferred by EV drivers. The simulation results showed that the fleet of 5 EVs in V2B/V2G could effectively reduce frequency deviation in a microgrid.

The increased penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) and electric vehicles (EVs) is resulting in significant challenges to the stability, reliability, and resiliency of the electrical grid due to the intermittency nature of RES and uncertainty of charging demands of EVs. There is a potential for significant economic returns to use vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology for peak load reduction and frequency control. To verify the effectiveness of the V2G-based frequency control in a microgrid, modeling and simulations of single-and multi-vehicle-based primary and secondary frequency controls were conducted to utilize the integrated components at the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology (CCHT)-V2G testing facility by using MATLAB/Simulink. A single-vehicle-based model was validated by comparing empirical testing and simulations of primary and secondary frequency controls. The validated conceptual model was then applied for dynamic phasor simulations of multi-vehicle-based frequency...