A semi-cooperative decentralized scheduling scheme for plug-in electric vehicle charging demand

Abstract

The paper proposes a decentralized control scheme for scheduling the flexible charging demand of plug-in electric vehicles in residential distribution networks. This control scheme is designed for execution by a multi-agent system at two consecutive stages of static and dynamic scheduling. The distinctive attributes of the developed control scheme are (i) to realistically prioritize both the customers’ and the utility’s objectives, (ii) to incorporate the uncertainty in the forecasted demand, (iii) to account for customers’ flexibility in their charging demand, and (iv) to specify a fair pricing scenario to all customers while protecting their privacy. The paper includes extensive numerical studies using a set of recorded real-world driving data, representing heterogeneous vehicular demand. In order to assess the efficacy of the proposed scheduling scheme, comparative assessments are also presented against an optimization-based charging scheduling scheme.