Coordinated charging strategy for electric vehicles based on time-of-use price

Aimed at reducing the peak-valley ratio of power grids, a time-period dividing method is proposed for the time-of-use (TOU) charging price of electric vehicles based on a comparative analysis on time periods of TOU price in power grids and peak-valley time periods of local distribution networks. Based on the TOU charging price proposed, a mathematical optimization model is developed with two control objectives, minimizing the customer charging fee and advancing the charging time of battery as early as possible. With the charging performance of customers simulated by Monte Carlo analysis, uncoordinated and coordinated charging modes are compared according to simulation results. It is indicated that, by responding to the TOU charging price proposed, the peak-valley ratio of power grids can be reduced and the customer satisfaction index can be enhanced. At the same time, the load curves of the local distribution network for different customer response coefficients are simulated to show that the more the customers that are influenced by the charging price, the more favorable it will be to smoothing the load fluctuation. © 2013 State Grid Electric Power Research Institute Press.