Author(s)

Chong Cao¹, Ming Cheng², Bo Chen^1,2

¹Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA.
²Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA.

While renewable power generation and vehicle electrification are promising solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it faces great challenges to effectively integrate them in a power grid. The weather-dependent power generation of renewable energy sources, such as Photovoltaic (PV) arrays, could introduce significant intermittency to a power grid. Meanwhile, uncontrolled PEV charging may cause load surge in a power grid. This paper studies the optimization of PEV charging/discharging scheduling to reduce customer cost and improve grid performance. Optimization algorithms are developed for three cases: 1) minimize cost, 2) minimize power deviation from a pre-defined power profile, and 3) combine objective functions in 1) and 2). A Microgrid with PV arrays, bi-directional PEV charging stations, and a commercial building is used in this study. The bi-directional power from/to PEVs provides the opportunity of using PEVs to reduce the intermittency of PV power generation and the peak load of the Microgrid. Simulation has been performed for all three cases and the simulation results show that the presented optimization algorithms can meet defined objectives.

PEV Charging/Discharging Scheduling, Microgrids, PV Arrays, Optimization

Cao, C. , Cheng, M. and Chen, B. (2016) Optimal Scheduling of PEV Charging/Discharging in Microgrids with Combined Objectives. Smart Grid and Renewable Energy, 7, 115-130. doi: 10.4236/sgre.2016.74008.