Operation Optimization of Virtual Power Plants for Coordinated Electric Vehicles Fleet Under Spatio‐Temporal Arbitrage Prices

The rapid integration of electric vehicles (EVs) into power grids critically necessitates management to harness their full potential and ensure system reliability amidst increasing demand. Existing optimization strategies often overlook granular spatial electricity pricing and comprehensive operational constraints, limiting the economic viability and full vehicle‐to‐grid (V2G) potential from the EV owner’s perspective. This paper proposes bi‐level optimization framework with mixed‐integer linear programming (MILP) model designed for virtual power plant (VPP) optimization in the lower‐level, ensuring profitable charging‐discharging management while simultaneously enhancing grid reliability through coordinated EV fleet operations. The upper‐level is for day‐ahead market clearing optimization, having spatio‐temporal locational marginal prices (LMPs) derived from optimal power flow (OPF). We evaluate the VPP’s performance across plausible case studies under varying grid import/export limits and a scalable EV fleet. Results consistently demonstrate the VPP’s remarkable profitability compared to uncoordinated EV charging. Notably, while the VPP fleet may not always yield an absolute net profit, it consistently achieves substantial economic value compared to uncoordinated charging, significantly reducing the overall operational expense. This translates to a 79.6% reduction under broader grid constraints and 71.1% under more stringent conditions, with some individual EVs even realizing direct profitability (>100% cost savings) in less constrained scenarios. At the system level, it highlights the VPP’s critical contributions to support grid by achieving up to 217.7% mitigation in peak‐hour system generation costs and effective load shaving, demonstrating its inherent scalability. These findings underscore the transformative potential of VPPs in enhancing grid resilience, economic efficiency, while contributing to sustainable large‐scale EV integration into future power systems.