Electric Vehicle Aggregation Review: Benefits and Vulnerabilities of Managing a Growing EV Fleet

Electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming more popular within the United States, making up an increasingly large portion of the US's electricity consumption. Hence, there is much attention has been directed on how to manage EVs within the power sector. A well-investigated strategy for managing the increase in electricity demand from EV charging is aggregation, which allows for an intermediary to manage electricity flow between EV owners and their utilities. When implemented effectively, EV aggregation provides key benefits to power grids by relieving electrical loads.. These benefits are aggregation's ability to shift EV loads to peak shave, which often leads to lower emissions, electricity generation prices, and consumer costs depending on the penetration levels of non-dispatchable electricity sources. This review seeks to appropriately highlight the broad vulnerabilities of EV aggregation alongside its benefits, namely those regarding battery degradation, rebound peaks, and cybersecurity. The holistic overview of EV aggregation provides comparisons that balance expectations with realistic performance.