A Consecutive Energy Management Approach for a VPP Comprising Commercial Loads and Electric Vehicle Parking Lots Integrated with Solar PV Units and Energy Storage Systems

Renewable energy resources (RES), such as photovoltaic (PV) solar systems, are environmentally friendly and can help to meet the fast growing load demand. Further, electric vehicle (EV) is a reliable alternative for the conventional vehicles given its technical and environmental advantages. However, due to the intermittent nature of the solar PV output, and also the electric and the economic issues that can be caused by the EV mass charging, a suitable paradigm is necessary for a better integration of EV charging with PV systems in distribution power systems. In this paper, a model of a virtual power plant (VPP), comprises the PV system and the EVs' parking lot, connected to a distribution power grid is developed. A consecutive energy management (CEM)-based methodology is presented to assign an organized and economic energy management for the VPP and to address the electric constraints for the power systems. Both the electric and economic impacts of the VPP and the efficacy of the CEM method are assessed through different case studies. The results from the case studies show that the proposed CEM method can decrease the cost of energy to the VPP and facilitate the integration of the VPP in power systems under varying system conditions.