Assessing the energy content of system frequency and electric vehicle charging efficiency for ancillary service provision

The purpose of this paper is to quantify the effect of biased system frequency deviations and charger losses in order for an aggregation of electric vehicles (EVs) to provide reliable primary frequency control (PFC). A data set consisting of one year of frequency measurements of the Nordic synchronous zone is used for the analysis. The average system frequency can be biased over the hour, which can lead storage units, performing PFC, to become fully charged or depleted. This paper presents statistical bounds on how variable the average system frequency can be on different time scales. Additionally, a method for calculating the expected energy loss caused by continuous charging and discharging is presented together with efficiency measurements of a commercial bidirectional EV charger. It is found that during a year, the energy balance of the service provider, relative to the grid, is within the calculated bounds. The efficiency losses are calculated and validated to have a linear relationship with the reserve capacity and the provision time.