Optimisation and analysis of system integration between electric vehicles and UK decentralised energy schemes

Abstract

Although district heat network schemes provide a pragmatic method by which to reduce the environmental impact of urban energy systems, there are additional benefits that could arise from servicing electric vehicles. Using the electricity generated on-site to power electric vehicles can make district heating networks more economically feasible, while also increasing environmental benefits. This paper aims to address the potential integration of electric vehicle charging into a large-scale district heating network to increase the value of the generated electricity and thereby improve the system's financial feasibility. A modelling approach is presented composed of a diverse range of distributed technologies that considers residential and commercial electric vehicle charging demands via agent-based modelling. An existing district heating network system in London was taken as a case study. The energy system was modelled as a mixed integer linear program and optimised for either profit maximisation or carbon dioxide emissions minimisation. Commercial electric vehicles provided the best alternative to increase revenue streams by about 11% against the current system configuration with emissions effectively unchanged. The research indicates district heating network systems need to carefully analyse transport electrification to improve the integration, and sustainability, of urban energy systems.

Modelling UK electricity regional costs for commercial buildings

“…Another interesting application of dynamic electricity prices derived from the MUKERC framework has been on the intelligent energy management via cloud-based solutions as presented by Olympios et al [45] and Bird et al [47] or by extracting maximum financial value to energy storage from electric vehicle fleets in a local energy network managed by a municipality [48]. We would expect for the research community, industry, and policy makers to embrace the application of dynamic electricity prices such as the ones presented in this work to more accurately reflect the conditions and challenges energy end users face today.…”

District Energy Systems: Challenges and New Tools for Planning and Evaluation

“…Which of these valuation methods is actually used depends strongly on the question to be investigated, and there is no silver bullet [79]. Most frequently, e.g., in Reference [67,89,90], the mean emission is used for import and export, but in contrast to what is postulated here, it is often used as an annual mean value. Literature can also be found, e.g., Reference [91][92][93], which (statically) selects the marginal power plant as an assessment variable for import and export.…”

The Development of Electromobility in Poland and EU States as a Tool for Management of CO2 Emissions

“…However, electric vehicles, although they hardly emit any harmful substances while driving, use electricity [101,102]. Electricity is generated in power plants and, depending on the state of the power system and energy mix in a given country, its production causes emissions of various substances into the atmosphere [103][104][105]. In connection with the above facts, the ecological effect of the fleet's replacement with electric vehicles was also calculated including emissions resulting from the generation of electricity.…”