Participation of Electric Vehicle Aggregators In Wholesale Electricity Markets: Recent Works and Future Directions

Electric Vehicles are key to reducing carbon emissions while bringing a revolution to the transportation sector. With the massive increase of EVs in road networks and the growing demand for charging services, the electric power grid faces enormous system reliability and operation stability challenges. Demand and supply disparities create inconsistency in the smooth delivery of electrical power. As a potential solution, EVs and their charging infrastructure can be aggregated not only to prevent the unwanted effects on the power system, but also to facilitate ancillary services to the grid. When not need for transportation purposes, EVs can leverage their batteries to benefit the power grid by participating in the electricity market via mechanisms coordinated by system operators. Hence, the market participation of EV infrastructure can help alleviate the power grid stress during peak periods. However, further research is needed to demonstrate the benefits to EV owners and system operators. The objective of this paper is to briefly overview the existing literature on market participation of EV aggregators, discuss associated challenges and needs, and propose research directions for future research.