Factors influencing the economic success of grid-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-grid applications—A review and meta-analysis

The growing number of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) has resulted in increasing availability of battery storage capacities. When PEVs are idle and plugged-in, secondary applications such as energy trading, frequency and load control can use this storage capacity. The existing literature on economic benefits of such applications shows inconsistent and contradictory results. To shed light on the reasons behind these different results, this paper uses a quantitative meta-analysis to identify key drivers of the economic benefits, based on 340 cases published between 2010 and 2018. The analysis shows that the two applications load leveling and participation in the secondary frequency market provide the highest economic benefits for PEV controlled charging applications. Increased charging power and efficiency as well as bi-directional charging capability significantly improve the economic benefits even when taking battery degradation into account. These findings highlight the importance of the charging technology and the last-mile charging infrastructure. Policymakers and grid operators should focus on integrating this technology into the existing infrastructure. Automakers can draw on our results to improve the charging technology of PEVs. •The literature on economic benefits of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) applications shows inconsistent and contradictory results.•The comprehensive meta-analysis shows that the two V2G applications with the highest economic benefits are load leveling and participation in the secondary frequency market.•The main drivers of the extent of economic benefits are the vehicle technology, the battery capacity, the charging technology and the achievable charging power.