Vehicle to Grid communication - Monte Carlo simulations based on Automated Meter Reading reliability

Previous work has shown that it could be prof- itable on some control markets to use Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) as control power resources. This concept, where battery driven vehicles such as PHEVs provide ancil- lary service to the grid is commonly referred to as Vehicle to Grid (V2G). The idea is to sell the capacity and energy of the parked PHEVs on the control market. Due to the fact that cars on average are parked 92% of the day, the avail- ability of this capacity could be very high, even though it will be highly dependent on commuting patterns in peak hours. Further, as each PHEV has a very small capacity from a grid perspective, it is necessary to implement an aggregating con- trol system, managing a large number of vehicles. This paper presents a Monte Carlo simulation model where technical is- sues such as the reliability in communication for a large fleet of PHEVs is included. The communication in the simula- tion model is based on data from Automated Meter Reading (AMR) systems, which share important charachteristics with V2G communications. Moreover, the simulation is based on available data on the distributions of commuting departure times and travel distances, as well as average driving power consumption, PHEV battery capacities and the market con- straints of the secondary control market in Germany.