The VF control in microgrid can be realized by distributed power supply, energy storage device, etc. In addition, EVs can also participate in microgrid VF regulation. For the VF control of microgrid, the microgrid control system of distributed power supply, load, MT, and EVs is established in this section.
2.1. Electric Vehicle Control Model
As a flexible energy storage device in microgrid control, EVs can regulate the charge and discharge power of the battery according to the instructions of the controller, thereby to control the interaction of active power with the grid [
13]. At the same time, charger scheduling is applied to realize the regulation of voltage or reactive power. The two-way charger can realize four-quadrant operation [
14], and the power factor cannot determine the transmission direction of reactive power, so the operating quadrant of the charger cannot be determined. Taking the power factor angle as the control variable can determine the transmission direction and magnitude of active and reactive power together, which is more conducive to the two-way transmission control of active and reactive power between the grid and the EV.
The function of EVs in microgrid control is similar to that of energy storage devices. In terms of active power, the charging and discharging power ranges of EV are limited within ±λe, due to the limits of inverter capacity. The Emax is the maximum capacity of EVs station. In addition, the recommended maximum capacity Ermax = 0.9Emax and the recommended minimum capacity Ermin = 0.1Emax are set to ensure the safe and stable operation of EV station. When the current capacity E of the EVs station is higher than the Ermax, the EV stations can discharge to the microgrid, and the discharge power range is 0–λe. Similarly, if the current capacity of the EVs station is lower than the Ermin, the EV station can be charged from the microgrid within the charging power range is −λe–0. In addition, the EV control model can be affected by users’ uncertain factors such as the randomness of travelling demands and charging behavior of users.
Firstly, the randomness of user travel demand affects the capacity and limitation of the charging station to be random. Therefore, it is necessary to establish the constraints of
SOC to ensure that the user’s normal travel is still satisfied under the interaction between EVs and the grid. In addition, the initial
SOC of the battery in this paper is set as a random number [
15] obeying Gaussian distribution, and its probability density function is expressed as Equation (1):
where
μs represents the average value of
SOC, and
σs represents the standard deviation.
According to the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) of the US Department of Transportation [
16], it can be obtained that the daily mileage
L obeys lognormal distribution, and its probability density function is as follows:
where
μL represents the average value of the daily mileage
L, and
σL represents the standard deviation.
According to the daily driving mileage, the charging time
Tc is calculated:
where
Pc is the charging power, and
Q100 is the power consumption per 100 km.
For the leaving time
Tleave, it is required that
Tleave ≥
Tc. Thus,
Tleave is set as follows:
where
σT is a positive random number.
Based on the above parameters, the demanded
SOC for future travel named
SOCm can be calculated [
17]:
where
S0 is the initial
SOC for EVs.
Therefore, for EVs in the station, the
SOC can be maintained within the range of [
SOCrmin,
SOCrmax].
SOCrmax and
SOCrmin are the recommended maximum and minimum value of
SOC, which can ensure the life of the battery. To satisfy the sufficient
SOCm to make sure the follow-up driving when EVs leave, the constraint conditions are added to the
SOC of EVs, as shown in
Figure 1. The blue dotted line represents the charge boundary, which means that the EV can no longer charge when the
SOC reaches
SOCrmax. The red dotted line represents the discharge boundary, which means that the EV can no longer discharge when the
SOC reaches
SOCrmin. The solid green line represents the boundary of forced charging, which means that the EV is forced to charge to ensure the
SOCm when leaving the charging station.
Furthermore, in terms of active power, the rated charging power of a single EV can be set to
and the rated discharging power to
The relationship between the charging power of a single EV and the charging and discharging state can be obtained as follows: When
SOCi ≥
SOCrmax, the single EV can discharge positive power increment 0 < Δ
PEV,I <
, which can ensure that
SOCi is controlled below
SOCrmax. When
SOCi ≤
SOCmin, the single EV can only be charged, that is, only the negative power increment can be discharged
0, which can ensure that
SOCi is controlled above
SOCrmin. When
SOCrmin <
SOCi <
SOCrmax, the single EV can be charged and discharged. Thus, the power increment satisfies
. In summary, the instruction distribution of the EVs station through the controller is shown in
Figure 2. In addition, the charging and discharging constraint boundary of a single EV can be obtained as follows:
The charging and discharging constraint boundary of the cluster EVs’
PEV can be obtained from the boundary of a single EV as follows:
where
nEV is the number of EV.
In addition, the active power capacity calculation is related to the number and the
SOC state of EV:
where
Ei represents the active power capacity of a single EV,
Eall represents the total active power capacity of EVs, and
Ect represents the real time active power capacity of the EVs station.
From this, it can be obtained that the output power Δ
PEV of the EV charging station during the charging and discharging process should meet the following constraints:
when
Ect >
Ermax, the real time active power capacity
Ect of the EV station is higher than the recommended maximum capacity
Ermax, due to the rapid increase in the number of EVs in the charging station. When
Ect <
Ermin, the number of EVs in the charging station is too small, or the EVs in the charging station are all in a low battery state. When
Ermin <
Ect <
Ermax, the EV station can either discharge to the microgrid or charge from the microgrid.
Furthermore, the capacity state
E of the EVs station is related to the EVs existing in the EVs station in different
SOC states. Therefore, by combining Equations (8) and (10), it can obtain the constraint of active output power Δ
PEV considering the travel demand of users, the number of electric vehicles, and the real-time
SOC of electric vehicles as:
After obtaining the boundary of the active discharge power Δ
PEV of the EVs, the reactive power boundary can be obtained through the power factor angle of the charger, and the circuit topology of the four-quadrant bidirectional charger mostly uses a double-buck AC–DC half-bridge conversion circuit, a traditional AC–DC half-bridge conversion circuit, and an AC–DC full-bridge conversion circuit. The capacity curve of the charger is shown in
Figure 3 [
18].
φ is the power factor angle when the apparent rated power is Δ
SEV.
φmin and
φmax are the minimum and maximum power factor angles of the charger. The positive axis of the
P axis and
Q axis represents the energy transferred from the grid to the EV charger. When the active power is
OA, the adjustable range of reactive power is
CC’, and the length of
OB is the apparent rated power Δ
S. In addition, the relationship of the active and reactive power Δ
PEV and Δ
QEV can be charged by
Figure 3, as in the Formula (12):
Thus, the power factor angle needs to meet the operating characteristics of the charger, and when ΔPEV > 0, the grid feeds active power to the EVs, when ΔQEV > 0, the grid feeds reactive power to the EVs.
In summary, the boundary of the output power increment of the EV charging station is affected by the number of EV in the charging station NEV, SOC state, electric vehicle charging station real time capacity E, and the angle of charging power factor.