V2G strategies for congestion management in microgrids with high penetration of electric vehicles

• A novel approach for microgrid congestion management is proposed.
• A microgrid comprising distributed generators and electric vehicles is used.
• Vehicle charging and discharging are part of the congestion management strategy.
• Distribution factors are used to allocate electric vehicle contribution.
• We show that electric vehicles can help alleviate congestion in power systems.

Modern electric power systems will face new operational challenges due to the influence of a high penetration of electric vehicles (EVs). In this context, power system operators may take advantage of EVs equipped with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies to deal with network congestion management issues.The working framework is an electric power system where energy trading is organized through an auction where the agents can exchange energy within it or alternatively between neighbouring distribution networks.An approach is proposed to address V2G strategies for congestion management issues. Power distribution factors (DFs) are used to determine the amount of energy that a specific EV should contribute to alleviate the congestion in a line. It is assumed that EVs can decrease or increase their battery energy level, stop their charging or even inject energy to the grid aiming for the secure state of the system. This approach is tested for a reference microgrid (MG) example containing several EVs and it is shown to be suitable to solve this kind of technical problems.