Electric Vehicle Integration with Grid-Forming Capability in Renewable-Powered Microgrids: A Survey and Future Perspectives

Abstract

In recent years, electric vehicles (EVs) are increasingly recognized as flexible energy resources that can provide ancillary services to renewable energy sources-based microgrids (MGs), particularly when operated under grid-forming (GFM) control techniques. However, realizing this potential requires developments across several layers, including EV charger architectures, storage systems coordination, and hierarchical MG control. This paper brings these developments together. It reviews recent advancements in hybrid energy storage systems, converter topologies for on-board and off-board EV chargers, advanced control and energy management systems, vehicle-to-grid implementations, and EV-interactive MG operation. It also provides a comparative assessment of three proposed GFM-based EV-MG integration schemes in terms of GFM resource availability, active power exchange capacity, efficiency, infrastructure cost, and ancillary service potential. Major open research challenges and promising directions are discussed at the end.