Projected growth in plug-in electric vehicles means challenges and opportunities for distribution utilities, according to Navigant Research. If PEVs are not managed intelligently, they can threaten overall grid reliability. But if they are aggregated and optimized with smart controls, they can offer grid services under new business model platforms such as microgrids and virtual power plants.

A new Navigant Research report says PEVs could become a viable enabling technology for microgrids and VPPs within the next five years.

“While the primary purposes of these platforms differ — resiliency versus bidirectional value exchanges — they share the common goal of extracting value from distributed energy resources portfolios,” Peter Asmus, research director with Navigant Research, said in a news release.

The report, “Implementing EV-Based Grid Services for Microgrids and VPPs,” covers the best methods of developing a strategy to best extract grid services embedded in plug-in electric vehicle batteries, charging loads and charging infrastructure to help support microgrid and VPP deployments.

For PEV ecosystem stakeholders to succeed in the market, they should support the development of communication standards, shape regulations on frequency regulation services and study new energy as a service (EaaS) business models, according to the report.

At the same time, the report says, microgrid ecosystem stakeholders should study the value that PEVs provide internally to the microgrid during emergency islanding and pair PEV fleets with stationary storage devices. VPP ecosystem stakeholders should use advances in artificial intelligence, the report says.

Those stakeholders should also advocate for market reforms and look for distributed energy resource management system market opportunities.

The report covers how to develop the best strategy to extract grid services embedded in PEV batteries, charging loads, and charging infrastructure to help support microgrid and VPP deployments.

The study also:

— defines the grid services possible from PEVs,
—  showcases global deployments that tap PEVs as DER for microgrids and VPPs, and
—  identifies lessons learned from deployments that point to market opportunities.

In addition, the report provides actionable recommendations for PEV, microgrid, and VPP stakeholders when implementing PEV-based applications within the next five years. An executive summary of the report is available for free download on the Navigant Research website.