On Optimality Criteria for Reverse Charging of Electric Vehicles

Ever increasing expectations regarding the penetration level of electric vehicles (EVs) are driving several areas of research related to EV charging. One topic of interest treats EVs not only as controllable loads but also as storage systems, which can be used to mitigate the load on the grid during peak times by offering power. This is known as vehicle to grid (V2G). Since returning energy to the grid affects mobility patterns, V2G has an associated environmental cost. In this paper, to investigate this issue, we formulate the problem of returning electrical load to the grid as an optimization whose goal is to return the desired energy in a fashion that minimizes the cost on the environment. We show that this optimization is highly complex, and in some circumstances, the cost of V2G can be prohibitive.