EV Recharge for the Supply of Balancing Services in Italy: Preliminary Techno-Economic Evaluations

The profitability of the supply of Balancing Services (BS) by an Electric Vehicle (EV), via participation in the Italian Balancing Market (BM), is evaluated. First of all, daily EV recharge is simulated without service supply (benchmark recharge). The related annual electricity bill is computed by assuming energy to be bought at Day-Ahead Market (DAM) prices. Then, to exploit price differences between the BM and the DAM, the recharge is simulated via energy exchanges for the BS. The resulting electricity bill is compared to the benchmark bill. Study cases include one- directional (V1G) and bi-directional (V2G) recharge, for a domestic or non-domestic EV user. In the VlG cases, participation in the BM is found to be profitable, while in the V2G cases the increased energy exchanges related to the BS imply also more charges and taxes, so an increased bill. To make V2G attractive for the end user, a partial exemption from paying charges on the energy exchanges for the BS is considered. For the domestic user, the exemption is necessary both for the energy absorbed from the grid and for the energy actually injected into the grid, while for the non-domestic user it is enough for the energy absorbed.