Grid integration of electric and hybrid electric vehicles in cyber-physical-social systems

Abstract

In this chapter, we will explore the challenges and opportunities of grid integration of electric and hybrid electric vehicles in cyber-physical-social systems (CPSS). Transportation systems that move people, goods, and services in societies worldwide pose unprecedented environmental, economic, and social challenges, particularly with the growing urgency to conserve energy, cut back on carbon emissions and pollution, avoid crashes, and relieve congestion. Advances in intelligent transportation systems and Smart Grid offer great promise to address these challenges and have the potential to revolutionize future transportation systems. In the last decade, the government around the world has spurred efforts to boost the utilization of transportation electrification technologies because of their low-pollution emissions, energy independence, and high fuel economy. An ever-increasing number of electric and hybrid electric vehicles will radically change the traditional view of the power industry, transportation industry, social environment, and business world. Research on grid integration of electric and hybrid electric vehicles typically addresses topics at the vehicle-grid boundary, such as peak load impacts and agent-based charging control. While researchers around the world are making significant advances in these areas, there is very little work addressing the coupled cyber-physical-social effects of electric and hybrid electric vehicle charging with the mobility-focused, transportation ecosystem to meet the dynamic needs of a changing society. It is important to recognize that today's critical infrastructure is an interdependent network of networks. A single network consists of millions of subnetworks and individual agents. The “tie point” is critical to its reliability, cost-effectiveness, and resiliency. As such “tie points,” the emerging deployment of electric and hybrid electric vehicle charging facilities would complicate the understanding and design of interdependent critical infrastructure systems. For example, as a transportation tool and electricity carrier, electric and hybrid electric vehicle can be charged at any charging facility and at any time, which brings more spatial and temporal uncertainty to the power grid's load forecast. The retail electricity price and parking fee may also have an impact on customer behavior, eventually leading to a change in traffic flow. Besides engineering considerations, the placement of electric and hybrid electric vehicle charging stations are constrained by applicable local policy and regulation, financial incentives, and public interests. We will discuss the state of the art of grid integration of electric and hybrid electric vehicles in a CPSS environment. Moreover, we will present a future perspective to enable the dramatic increase of electrified vehicles, and ultimately lead to (1) reduced fossil fuel consumption; (2) reduced carbon emissions and pollution; (3) increased customer satisfaction; (4) increased reliability and efficiency for moving people and goods; (5) improved efficiency of intelligent transportation systems; (6) accelerated adoption of Smart Grid technologies; and (7) increased use of infrastructure capacity.