EV scheduling framework for peak demand management in LV residential networks

Increased electrification in the residential and transport sectors is changing the energy demand profiles significantly, which results in reshaped peak demand. These changes in demand profiles can cause grid overloading and jeopardize network reliability especially when the excessive use of electricity within a network is uncoordinated. In this article, an aggregated coordination mechanism is proposed for electric vehicle (EV) charge-discharge scheduling to manage the peak demand in the low-voltage (LV) residential networks. The proposed model uses mixed-integer-programming-based optimization approach to minimize the cost of energy while managing the peak demand and complying with grid constraints. A stochastic model is presented to account for the uncertainties associated with forecast inaccuracies of the day-ahead scheduling. The proposed strategy is assessed by means of simulation studies considering an LV residential neighborhood in Sydney, Australia. The results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy to minimize the cost of electricity for the EV owners while managing the peak demand for the grid operators. Comparison with the state-of-the-art EV scheduling strategies indicates that the proposed strategy can improve the load factor of the local network up to 36%, the peak-to-average ratio up to 27%, and cost reductions up to 56%.