Forecasting the vehicle energy potential to support the needs of electricity grid: a floating car data-based methodology

In a global context characterized by climate warming, the transport sector has found the use of electric vehicles to be one of the possible measures of decarbonization. Although the purchase rate of this type of vehicle is still low, there are many research fields related to both the development of the electric charging network and the improvement of batteries to ensure features that meet the expectations of users. Moreover, the increase of the use of electricity can cause issues in electrical network stability, especially during the peak hours. Therefore, this sector is facing new challenges, including the case of vehicle-to-grid (V2G), which is a solution that allows the use of vehicle batteries, not only as a source of energy for the vehicles, but also as stabilizers of the supply network when the vehicles are parked (i.e., no energy is needed for their activity). In the recent years, the researchers mainly focused on the energy infrastructure and technologies, neglecting problems related to the identification of the best locations for V2G services and the potential acceptance of the electric vehicles’ owners, as well as on the potential energy that can be transferred to the grid according to the users’ needs (e.g., to continue to use their vehicle for completing the daily activities). This paper proposes a methodology aimed at identifying potential areas for deploying V2G services by using floating car data (FCD) and at estimating the potential energy to be transferred to the grid without interfering with the daily activities. This methodology is finally applied to a case study of five provinces of the Veneto region, showing the significant results obtained.