The viability of vehicle to grid (V2G) interaction for the Department of Defense
Date
2012
Authors
Johnston, Brian Dean, author
Bradley, Thomas H., advisor
Maciejewski, Anthony A., committee member
Young, Peter, committee member
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Abstract
The Department of Defense, through a combination of mandated Executive Orders and voluntary energy saving goals has direction to achieve improvements in energy self-sufficiency onboard its major domestic bases. Two primary areas of interest are in the area of expanding use of collocated renewable energy production (Wind, Solar, Biomass), and the capability to operate at some level of capacity completely independent of commercial utility providers in an "islanded" microgrid condition. Reduced environmental impact and enhanced energy security are a proposed result of the achievement of these objectives. Traditional power grids have only a negligible energy storage capability, so production must equal demand at all times. Energy production from renewable sources is intermittent and not subject to dispatch, so it requires smoothing to enhance its utilization and value. Vehicle to Grid (the use of vehicle energy storage as a grid resource) provides a technology which can mitigate the difficulties in integration of renewable power generation as well as provide collocated energy storage for a microgrid under islanded conditions. Military bases are equipped with extensive vehicle fleets for both operational support and logistics requirements. This report analyzes the potential benefit of electrifying this fleet of vehicle assets as V2G capable Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) or Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) to not only achieve energy savings with the vehicles themselves, but to concurrently achieve advances in the integration of collocated renewable resources as well as provide enhanced independent microgrid operation. Previous studies have focused on V2G capability in terms of its application in the civilian sector. Primary measures of the effectiveness of V2G are availability, reliability, and commercial viability. These metrics focus the employment of V2G to primarily the Ancillary Services portion of the commercial power production market due to the difficulty in aggregating thousands of independently owned energy sources/sinks in a reliable and cost effective way. The military base environment provides a new and compelling use for V2G, in that individual vehicle assets are commanded operationally and therefore much easier to aggregate reliably. Also of interest is the requirement in an "islanded" scenario, where V2G might provide all the requirements of a full power grid including Base Load, Peak Load, and Ancillary Services reliably and with some level of improved capability over traditional power generation technologies such as backup diesel generation. This study explores the viability of V2G as part of the DoD's operational and strategic energy initiatives. It provides a review of energy requirements for islanded operation on a typical military air base, proposes a model fleet of BEV/PHEV assets to attempt to meet those requirements, evaluates the operational and strategic value of the V2G system, and proposes an idealized Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the employment of those vehicles.
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Subject
energy security
vehicle to grid
V2G
microgrid