Volume 49

Electric Vehicle Scheduling Strategies to Reduce the Imbalances due to User Uncertainties Raviteja Chemudupaty, Ivan Pavić

Abstract

There has been an increase in the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) due to growing environmental concerns, technological advancements, and supportive government policies. This rapid increase in EVs necessitates energy providers to procure sufficient power to meet the charging demands. However, uncertainties in EV usage due to variable driving patterns and charging preferences make it challenging for energy providers to predict the charging demand. To address these uncertainties, energy providers can use stochastic models and trade in multiple short-term electricity markets. Moreover, when smart charging, energy providers can use the EV flexibility to charge the vehicles during lower market price periods, reducing procurement costs. Despite these strategies, there is a time lag between trading and delivery during which users could change their EV usage patterns, leading to new user requirements during delivery. This update in the user requirements creates discrepancies between procured and updated power needs, causing imbalances. Our study analyzes whether EVs possess enough flexibility to overcome their uncertainties, satisfy user energy requirements, and reduce imbalance costs. We develop a two-step approach: 1) procuring energy in the day-ahead market and 2) rescheduling across each EV to meet updated requirements. We test three rescheduling strategies across 51 scenarios, reflecting the updated user requirements. Our findings reveal that, despite uncertainties, EVs have enough flexibility to meet user needs and reduce imbalance costs, with the potential for additional revenues.

Keywords Smart charging, Electric vehicle flexibility, Optimization, Day-ahead market, Imbalance costs