Strategic operation of electric vehicle in residential microgrid with vehicle-to-home features

The urgent need for innovative energy solutions to facilitate the transition to renewable energy and electric vehicles (EVs) is particularly critical in developing countries, where high emissions and grid reliability challenges persist. This study investigates an off-grid residential renewable energy system with stationary storage like battery and hydrogen, alongside an EV as mobile storage. A bi-level optimization framework is established considering stationary and mobile energy storage options and a strategy is proposed to implement Vehicle-toHome (V2H) in off-gird settings. Three cases are studied, with optimal component sizing determined using an optimization tool integrated with MATLAB. Firstly, to determine the most cost-effective stationary storage alternative, Case 1 uses hydrogen and Case 2 employs a battery as storage. Then Case 3 integrates the optimal stationary storage with mobile storage using V2H technology enabling the EV to support household energy needs during peak times. Results highlight that combining stationary and mobile storage (Case 3) offers a 15.92% reduction in Total Net Present Cost (TNPC) and a 13.9% reduction in Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) compared with stationary storage alone. This off-grid system (Case 3) also outperforms the conventional grid economically and environmentally, offering 2.13x TNPC reduction and 7,813 kg/yr carbon emissions mitigation.