Abstract
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Large scale adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) opens opportunities to exploit the batteries for energy storage and the regulation of electrical grids. A control technique applied to a smart bidirectional electric vehicle charger (SBEVC) could be harnessed to assist with power supply and demand of the National Electricity Market (NEM), which would improve system stability and decrease energy losses. This paper presents the control technique and tests its performance using MATLAB software based simulations of the NEM using real-world data supplied by the Australian Electricity Market Operator (AEMO). The control technique utilizes official forecast data to predict the optimal time to charge from the grid and when to discharge to the grid. The control technique uses spot price for reference. Over a month, an EV owner could 'earn' 38.20 AUD if purchasing and selling at spot price (excluding levelized cost of storage). With 84 EVs implementing the control technique, at peak hour an extra 0.5 MW could be provided to the distribution system every day. This can be increased by using more powerful EV chargers. Parameters such as limiting the minimum state of charge (SoC) of the battery are used as guidelines to decrease battery degradation and to lower disruptions to the system.