Smart electric vehicle management vs. battery storage for energy communities: a case study from Denmark

Energy communities are emerging as a crucial component in the energy transition, enabling the generation, sharing, and efficient management of renewable energy at a community level. The integration of electric vehicles (EVs) with bidirectional charging capabilities could potentially further enhance the performance of these communities by optimising energy use and reducing costs. This paper investigates the impact of incorporating EV chargers with vehicle-to-building (V2B) technology on the electricity costs within an energy community reliant on photovoltaic (PV) energy production. We conduct a comparative analysis of the performance of V2B against unidirectional smart charging (V1G) and a stationary battery energy storage system (BESS) by employing an optimisation model informed by real-world data—including EV driving patterns, PV generation, electricity consumption, and the associated costs. The analysis covers both a summer and a winter week to account for variations in con- sumption, PV generation, and driving habits. Our results reveal that the V2B system consistently outperforms both V1G and BESS in reducing electricity costs, demonstrating up to a tenfold reduction in costs compared to the BESS during summer. These findings underscore the potential of bidirectional charging for potentially significant economic savings and its role in promoting low-impact CO2 energy solutions within energy community settings.