Real-time payoff-maximization for aggregator in dynamic aggregator-PHEV system

In recent years, more and more plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) have been put to use in smart grid. In this paper, we consider a dynamic aggregator-PHEV system, where the aggregator convinces the PHEVs to use electricity rather than gas by setting an appropriate charging price dynamically. We propose a payoff-maximizing algorithm for the aggregator to decide not only the charging price but also the electricity amount purchased from real-time power market based on Lyapunov optimization. Furthermore, we transform the power purchase problem into the energy allocation problem among all the PHEVs. The proposed algorithm operates in real time and does not require any prior knowledge of the statistical information of the system. Theoretically, we demonstrate the proposed algorithm can guarantee system stability and achieve a result that is away from the optimum by O(1/V ), where V is a control parameter. The effectiveness and robustness of the algorithm is validated through simulation results.