A Hierarchical Incentive Arbitration Scheme for Coordinated PEV Charging Stations

Distribution utilities are becoming increasingly aware that their networks may struggle to accommodate a large number of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), especially at times of peak loading. In this paper, a centralized scheduling scheme is formulated to coordinate charging of a heterogeneous PEV fleet, which is then divided into load groups, each with a set of local objectives, constraints, and a decentralized control algorithm. Realistic energy tariffs are used to formulate probable "real-world" objectives for each load group, and a distributed dynamic program is used to regulate the net load of each load group. It is shown that charging coordination not only reduces peak network loads, but can also significantly reduce the customer's PEV charging cost. Potential improvements from the perspective of communication and modeling are also highlighted by adopting a systematic approach to divide the PEV fleet into load groups.