Economic and climate benefits of vehicle-to-grid for low-carbon transitions of power systems: A case study of China's 2030 renewable energy target

More and more attention has been given to the role of electric vehicles in reducing the economic cost and carbon emissions of the power system through the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) mode, as well as helping to integrate renewable energy power. The promotion of V2G mode needs to consider the effectiveness of policy costs, so it is urgent to estimate the potential benefits of V2G. In this paper, a multi-regional power dispatch and expansion model is constructed from the perspective of power system by taking China's plan to reach 1.2 billion kW of installed wind and photovoltaic power generation capacity in 2030 as an example, combining with the development planning of electric vehicles and power systems. The results show that by 2030, the implementation of unidirectional V2G and bidirectional V2G in China can reduce the total cost of power system by 2.02% and 2.08%, reduce the annual carbon emissions of the power system by 2.27% and 2.95%, and increase the total proportion of wind and photovoltaic power generation by 1.33% and 1.28% in the power mix. An increasing proportion of electric vehicles participate in V2G increases the proportion of new-installed wind generation and decreases that of photovoltaic power. Due to the high cost of battery degradation and the current power mix dominated by coalfired generation, additional benefits of implementing bidirectional V2G over unidirectional V2G are limited.

Automated summary

This paper explores the role of electric vehicles in reducing economic costs and carbon emissions of the power system, as well as increasing the integration of renewable energy. By constructing a multi-regional power dispatch and expansion model, the study shows that implementing V2G can reduce total costs, carbon emissions, and increase the proportion of wind and photovoltaic power generation by 2030 in China.