Coordinated operation of coupled transportation and power distribution systems considering road solar generation

Abstract

The emerging photovoltaic (PV) integration technology called solar road (SR) gives road infrastructure the possibility of not only carrying traffic loads but also generating electricity. The versatility of SR leads to the nexus between transportation network (TN) and power distribution network (PDN). Along with the increasing penetration of electric vehicles (EVs), the installation of SR can promote the reliance of transportation and electrical networks to a higher degree. In order to cope with the severe challenges brought by SR and EV to the TN-PDN coordinated operation, this paper suggests a traffic-power coordinated operation model incorporating road solar generation (TPOSR), where the impact of the traffic flow and SR on the coupled network is studied. Specifically, the user equilibrium (UE) principle is adopted to describe the traffic flow distribution in TN, while the Distflow model is employed to model the power flow in PDN. In TN, the SRs serve as links that let the vehicles through. Moreover, from the perspective of PDN, the SR output model considering traffic shading effect is proposed, based on traffic assignment problem (TAP) and traffic flow theory. In the proposed TPOSR model, we assume the independent system operator, a public organization, can imposes road tolls and dispatch generators to promote coordinated operation of the coupled network. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed TPOSR for reducing social costs and improving SR performance.