Joint Mobility and Vehicle-to-Grid Coordination in Rebalancing Shared Mobility-on-Demand Systems

Abstract

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology enables plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) to act as controllable loads and distributed energy resources for power systems. However, these resources, under the context of Mobility-on-Demand (MoD) market, have yet to be fully exploited for the grid services. This paper investigates how providing energy service from the shared PEVs affects both the power and transportation systems. We consider a shared MoD platform where PEVs can choose to provide either the V2G service or the traveling service when they are rebalanced to future high demand areas. In this market, the power and transportation system operators determine appropriate rewards to attract the PEV drivers. On the other hand, these drivers choose between energy and mobility services to maximize their aggregate benefits. In particular, we analytically model drivers’ preferences for discharging and traveling services through carefully selected utility functions. Moreover, a distributed algorithm is developed to manage the interactions between PEVs and the grid operation. We show that PEV drivers can be encouraged to achieve a desired energy and mobility pattern by optimizing their individual utility. Numerical results demonstrate that integrating energy service into the ride-sourcing market can benefit both PEV drivers and the power system.