Agent-based modeling and simulation for the coordinated pricing strategy of the electric vehicle battery switching station

The pricing strategy is critical for the construction and operation of the battery switching stations as well as the service quality to the EV owners. In this paper, the regularity of the EV owners is estimated, and cost of the operation of the battery switching station is analyzed. Then, this paper proposed an agent-based model of the battery switching service in the station, which, by establishing the detailed EV and battery agents through coding their states and transitions, enables the whole-scene observation of the EV refueling request, the simulation of the battery switching station, and the assessment of different pricing strategies. Furthermore, considering the current high cost of the EV batteries and their quality decreasing due to recharging times, this paper proposed a battery-condition-based coordinated pricing strategy, and developed a 3D computer simulation platform to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model and the performance of the coordinated pricing strategy. Simulation denotes that the model can well reveal the driving regularity of the EV owners and the decreasing in batteries, which will be of significant meanings in making decisions on the configuration of the station and finding the optimized pricing strategy. Due to the severe fluctuation in the battery quality in the simulation, the cost of the battery is dominant in the station cost compared with the electricity price, and the proposed pricing is a preferred way in making up the battery cost of the station while providing fair service for the EV owners.