Abstract
Electric vehicle (EV) chargers can be controlled to support the grid frequency by implementing a standard-compliant
fast primary frequency control (PFC). This study addresses potential effects on power systems due to control discreteness in
aggregated EVs when providing frequency regulation. Possible consequences of a discrete response, as reserve provision error
and induced grid frequency oscillations, are first identified by a theoretical analysis both for large power systems and for
microgrids. Thus, an EV fleet management solution relying on shifting the droop characteristic for the individual EVs is
proposed. The PFC is implemented in a microgrid with a power-hardware-in-the-loop approach to complement the investigation
with experimental validation. Both the analytical and the experimental results demonstrate how the controller performance is
influenced by the response granularity, and that related oscillations can be prevented either by reducing the response
granularity or by applying appropriate shifts on the droop characteristics for individual EVs.
fast primary frequency control (PFC). This study addresses potential effects on power systems due to control discreteness in
aggregated EVs when providing frequency regulation. Possible consequences of a discrete response, as reserve provision error
and induced grid frequency oscillations, are first identified by a theoretical analysis both for large power systems and for
microgrids. Thus, an EV fleet management solution relying on shifting the droop characteristic for the individual EVs is
proposed. The PFC is implemented in a microgrid with a power-hardware-in-the-loop approach to complement the investigation
with experimental validation. Both the analytical and the experimental results demonstrate how the controller performance is
influenced by the response granularity, and that related oscillations can be prevented either by reducing the response
granularity or by applying appropriate shifts on the droop characteristics for individual EVs.
