Dutch electric vehicle drivers' preferences regarding vehicle-to-grid contracts

Examining the willingness to participate in vehicle-to-grid contracts by conducting a context-dependent stated choice experiment taking into account the EV recharging speed

Master thesis (2019)

Authors

A.G. Meijssen Technology, Policy and Management

Contributors

Z. Lukszo Energy and Industry (supervisor 1)
J.A. Annema Transport and Logistics - TPM (supervisor 1)
B. Huang Transport and Logistics - TPM (supervisor 1)
Faculty
Technology, Policy and Management
Copyright: © 2019 Aart Meijssen
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Published Date

30-08-2019

Language

English

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Faculty

Technology, Policy and Management

Abstract

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) could turn an electric vehicle (EV) into a potential source of flexibility, in order to deal with the variability and uncertainty in electricity supply brought about by renewable energy sources and the load increase caused by the adoption of EVs. However, only a few studies have focussed on the complexity of EV drivers’ motivations towards V2G contracts. The main objective of this research was to address this lack of empirical evidence in the V2G literature by conducting a stated choice experiment among Dutch EV drivers’ to obtain their preferences regarding participating in V2G contracts with an aggregator, an intermediary party that would bundle the batteries of the EVs virtually. These preferences were measured from the perspectives of both current and increased recharging speeds of EVs. Therefore, the impact of an increased recharging speed on the potential success of V2G was also measured. In particular, the effect of an increased recharging speed on the guaranteed minimum battery level, one of the contract attributes used in both former as well as in this research, was quantified. A total of 1,332 choice observations was gathered and used to estimate an Multinomial Logit (MNL) model. The results showed that Dutch EV drivers based their decisions to choose for a particular V2G contract on a required plug-in time, a financial compensation, a number of discharging cycles and a guaranteed minimum battery level. However, the relative importance of these contract attributes depended on the recharging speed of the EVs. In fact, Dutch EV drivers valued the guaranteed minimum battery level half as important within the context of a fast recharging speed, relative to recharging speed of their current EVs. The results are compared to the few previously conducted stated choice experiment on V2G contracts, indicating that the demanded financial compensation for the significant contract attributes seems to decrease.