A Coordinated Control Strategy of Electric Vehicles for Frequency Control in Modern Power Grids

This research presents a novel coordinated control strategy for integrating electric vehicles (EVs) into multi-area power systems that enhances frequency regulation. By aggregating EVs, the strategy provides a strong, efficient response to grid frequency changes, offering crucial primary and secondary regulation support and reducing the burden on traditional generators. The study optimizes controller parameters using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and the Cuckoo Search Algorithm (CSA). Simulation results confirm the CSA-optimized controller effectively stabilizes system frequency, maintaining EV deviations within ±0.2 Hz. Additionally, it achieves a settling time of just 10 seconds, which is significantly shorter compared to other controllers across all case studies. For N-2 contingency which involves the simultaneous tripping of two major transmission lines, coordinated EV with CSA yielded the lowest ITAE (1.0), outperforming PSO (1.15), unoptimized EV control (1.2) and AGC (1.6) by 12-15 iterations, demonstrating superior frequency stability. The framework’s performance and robustness were rigorously validated on the IEEE 9-bus system and real-world power systems using DIgSILENT PowerFactory. Ultimately, this research highlights EVs’ potential in grid frequency control and emphasizes the importance of advanced integration strategies.