Electric vehicles as a resource to balance the price peaks in electricity spot markets - case Finland

Abstract

In the past few years, the volatility of electricity spot market prices has been high in the Finnish power system. This has motivated users to allocate electricity consumption such as electric car charging to low-price-hours. Consumers with spot price tariffs have saved hundreds of euros annually by scheduling their charging. This paper aims to assess the potential of electric vehicles as a resource to balance the electricity price peaks in electricity spot markets. In the future, the number of EVs will increase significantly which makes it a considerable load for the power system. However, it seems that other factors such as increasing wind power influence more on electricity prices than EV charging.