Optimizing Operations for Large Scale Charging of Electric Vehicles

The problem of operations for large scale charging of Electric Vehicles (EVs) is considered. Envisioned to be part of the future transportation infrastructure, a large scale charging facility runs on two categories of energy sources: a cheap energy source (e.g., renewable energy such as wind or solar) and an expensive energy source (e.g., grid electricity). The charging facility will be capable of charging hundreds of EVs simultaneously. In the future smart grid, charging facilities require properly designed pricing and scheduling that take into account the intermittency of renewable energy, the grid electricity cost, the arrival-departure characteristics, and customer price sensitivity. The operation of charging facilities is captured as a deadline scheduling system. On top of the scheduling system, simulations are conducted to study the impact induced by different operations of large scale charging. The monopoly pricing as well as the effect of competition in price in the presence of two charging facilities with different spatial locations when different scheduling algorithms are adopted by the charging facilities are also studied via simulations.