Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

At Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Dr. Samveg Saxena currently serves as the project lead for Vehicle-to-Grid Simulator (V2G-Sim).[46] V2G-Sim is a simulation platform tool used to model spatial and temporal driving and charging behavior of individual plug-in electric vehicles on the electric grid. Its models are used to investigate the challenges and opportunities of V2G services, such as modulation of charging time and charging rate for peak demand response and utility frequency regulation. V2G-Sim has also been used to research the potential of plug-in electric vehicles for renewable energy integration. Preliminary findings using V2G-Sim have shown controlled V2G service can provide peak-shaving and valley-filling services to balance daily electric load and mitigate the duck curve. On the contrary, uncontrolled vehicle charging was shown to exacerbate the duck curve. The study also found that even at 20 percent fade in capacity, EV batteries still met the needs of 85 percent of drivers.[47]

In another research initiative at Lawrence Berkeley Lab using V2G-Sim, V2G services were shown to have minor battery degradation impacts on electric vehicles as compared to cycling losses and calendar aging.[48] In this study, three electric vehicles with different daily driving itineraries were modelled over a ten-year time horizon, with and without V2G services. Assuming daily V2G service from 7PM to 9PM at a charging rate of 1.440 kW, the capacity losses of the electric vehicles due to V2G over ten years were 2.68%, 2.66%, and 2.62%.