Blockchain-assisted spent electric vehicle battery participation for load frequency control problems in interconnected power systems is resilient, low-carbon, and offers revenues to the operators

Parked electric vehicles (EVs) participation is thought to be a low-carbon and resilient solution in addressing the load frequency control (LFC) problems in interconnected power systems (IPS). But this participation results in multiple issues such as trust, traceability, and transparency (3Ts) for EV owners in terms of financial compensation, battery effects, and range anxiety; early EV batteries end-of-life (EoL) management by recyclers; and burden on critical materials for new EV batteries manufacturing. Hence, to avoid the highlighted issues while addressing LFC, we propose a product life-extension circular business model and blockchainification of nondigital assets inspired spent EV battery (SEVB) buffer storage system. Two area IPS where areas 1 and 2 having a tie-line power agreement, SEVB storage system, particle swarm optimization (PSO)-based controller, and blockchain-based participatory smart contracts (BC-PSC) are modeled. Resilience Performance, Life Cycle Analysis, and Techno-Economic (RePLiCATE) approach is used for realizing the feasibility. Results showed BCPSC protocols and PSO effectively obtained the controller's optimal parameters under disruptive scenarios ranging from 5 to 20%. The recovery times went from 18.60 to 46.43 sec. SEVB in LFC produces 18.71% less global warming potential than parked EVs. Revenues for SEVB owners were 122.27%, 100.22%, and 66.67% higher than cash spent on charging at off-peak, mid-peak, and on-peak, respectively.

Automated summary

Parked electric vehicles are considered a low-carbon and resilient solution for load frequency control problems in interconnected power systems. However, their participation brings multiple challenges such as trust, traceability, and transparency. To address these issues, we propose a product life-extension circular business model and a blockchain-based buffer storage system for spent EV batteries. Simulation results show that the blockchain-based participatory smart contracts and particle swarm optimization-based controller effectively optimize the system under various disruptive scenarios.