Modeling charging demands of various types of electric vehicles in an actual distribution system

Developing an elaborate load model for electric vehicles (EVs) charging is of great importance. First, analysis about the charging behaviors of five types of EVs is carried out based on survey results. Subsequently, a smart charging strategy which not only takes into account the user behaviors but also considers the real-time electricity price, is presented to regulate the charging behaviors of EVs by providing economic incentives. Considering the uncertainties of the charge price, the robust optimization model for smart charging is then developed and AMPL/CPLEX, a highly efficient commercial solver, is employed to obtain the optimal charging plan. Finally, a typical Hangzhou distribution system is employed to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed model. The results show that the existing distribution network can accommodate EVs more efficiently by employing the proposed decentralized smart charging strategy in comparison with the uncontrolled charging strategy.