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Incentives for electric vehicle users to provide flexibility services to electricity systems
Flexibility is crucial for clean energy systems as solution to the increasingly challenging match of supply and demand. In this Master's thesis, the student will investigate incentives for flexibility provision of electric vehicle users, using agent-based modeling.
Keywords: Sustainable Energy Systems, Net Zero, Electric Vehicles, Flexibility, Demand Response
Flexibility becomes a solution to the increasingly challenging match of supply and demand due to intermittent renewable energy and additional demand load from low-carbon technologies. Both integrating a high share of distributed renewable electricity generation and the electrification of heating and transport can challenge distribution grids. The match of supply and demand becomes more complicated due to intermittent renewable electricity supply, and because electric vehicles (EVs)and heat pumps increase the already disproportionally high peak demand of households. To ensure energy security while avoiding the installation of additional peak capacity and grid reinforcement, causing financial and environmental costs, demand-side solutions are increasingly required. Flexibility provision by steering (dis)charging of EVs to periods with high renewable energy generation and low demand requires behavioral changes of EV users. Therefore, specific incentives, such as flexibility remuneration, for controlled (dis)charging are likely to be necessary.
Flexibility becomes a solution to the increasingly challenging match of supply and demand due to intermittent renewable energy and additional demand load from low-carbon technologies. Both integrating a high share of distributed renewable electricity generation and the electrification of heating and transport can challenge distribution grids. The match of supply and demand becomes more complicated due to intermittent renewable electricity supply, and because electric vehicles (EVs)and heat pumps increase the already disproportionally high peak demand of households. To ensure energy security while avoiding the installation of additional peak capacity and grid reinforcement, causing financial and environmental costs, demand-side solutions are increasingly required. Flexibility provision by steering (dis)charging of EVs to periods with high renewable energy generation and low demand requires behavioral changes of EV users. Therefore, specific incentives, such as flexibility remuneration, for controlled (dis)charging are likely to be necessary.
The aim is to investigate different incentives, including financial types, such as static and dynamic time-of-use tariffs, and non-financial types, such as information about consumption. Different EV users need to be considered because EV users with different driving and (dis)charging profiles might prefer/react differently to specific incentives, which can affect the flexibility they can/are willing to provide.
The student’s tasks comprise (preliminary):
- Identifying and selecting specific incentives with promising effects on flexibility provision.
- Developing an agent-based model to investigate the uptake of different incentives by EV users and the effect of the incentives on charging load.
- Analyzing the results concerning most popular and effective incentives with different future scenarios, including infrastructure deployment.
- Discussing implications for decision makers in industry, academia, and policy.
The aim is to investigate different incentives, including financial types, such as static and dynamic time-of-use tariffs, and non-financial types, such as information about consumption. Different EV users need to be considered because EV users with different driving and (dis)charging profiles might prefer/react differently to specific incentives, which can affect the flexibility they can/are willing to provide.
The student’s tasks comprise (preliminary): - Identifying and selecting specific incentives with promising effects on flexibility provision. - Developing an agent-based model to investigate the uptake of different incentives by EV users and the effect of the incentives on charging load. - Analyzing the results concerning most popular and effective incentives with different future scenarios, including infrastructure deployment. - Discussing implications for decision makers in industry, academia, and policy.
We are looking for an excellent student who is highly motivated, able to work independently, and has a passion for sustainable energy supply and demand. Strong communication and project management skills as well as a background in energy/environmental/industrial engineering, economics or similar are additional assets. The student will be an integrated part of the dynamic SusTec team in Zurich and will be supervised by a PhD student and a post-doctoral researcher.
Are you interested? Please send your CV, a short letter of motivation (max. one page) and transcripts of previously obtained degrees (with grades) to Christine
Gschwendtner (cgschwendtner@ethz.ch). Applications from non-ETH students are welcome. We look forward to receiving your application!
We are looking for an excellent student who is highly motivated, able to work independently, and has a passion for sustainable energy supply and demand. Strong communication and project management skills as well as a background in energy/environmental/industrial engineering, economics or similar are additional assets. The student will be an integrated part of the dynamic SusTec team in Zurich and will be supervised by a PhD student and a post-doctoral researcher.
Are you interested? Please send your CV, a short letter of motivation (max. one page) and transcripts of previously obtained degrees (with grades) to Christine Gschwendtner (cgschwendtner@ethz.ch). Applications from non-ETH students are welcome. We look forward to receiving your application!