Background

India is pursuing an ambitious renewable energy (RE) program and is the only major economy that has already met the 2030 targets under Paris Agreement eight years in advance. At Glasgow in November 2021, India has committed an enhanced RE target of 500 GW by 2030 and Net Zero by 2070. India’s commitment to the climate goals would drive proliferation of distributed RE resources connected to the medium voltage (MV) and low voltage (LV) distribution grid. As the share of solar energy increases, intermittency in solar generation will adversely impact the grid stability and power quality. EVs and rooftop PV (RTPV) systems are both connected to the low voltage grid which can complement each other if EVs have Vehicle to Grid (V2G) functionalities – surplus generation of RTPV systems creating reverse power flow can be stored in the EV batteries; and the EVs can inject electricity back to the grid whenever there is sudden dip in the RTPV generation.

Traditionally EV manufacturers did not promote V2G functionality as the warranty for the EV battery from the battery OEM was limited to certain number of charge-discharge cycles which can be over soon if EVs participate in V2G functions. However, the properties of lithium-ion batteries have improved significantly that its life can outlast the EV itself while several V2G experiments conducted around the world have proven that if the charge-discharge cycles are kept shallow, the number of such charge-discharge cycles would not have any adverse impact on the life of the battery. Large numbers of EVs connected to the grid can be aggregated as Virtual Plant Plant(VPP) that can provide ancillary services and flexibility to the grid which is becoming critical for stable grid operation.