Improving Electric Vehicle Charging Coordination Through Area Pricing

Transportation Science, Forthcoming

Posted: 8 Jan 2013 Last revised: 10 Jul 2013

See all articles by Christoph M. Flath

Christoph M. Flath

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Jens Ilg

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Sebastian Gottwalt

Research Center for Information Technology (FZI)

Hartmut Schmeck

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Christof Weinhardt

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Date Written: April 3, 2013

Abstract

Meeting charging demands of large electric vehicle fleets will raise electrical load significantly and may pose challenges for today's power system. Appropriate coordination of electric vehicle charging can reduce these threats. Acknowledging the interdependency between the transportation and the power system created by electric vehicles, we develop a charging coordination model based on German mobility data. We extend the prior work by explicitly accounting for both the temporal and the spatial dimension. We are thus able to analyze the loads from price-based EV fleet charging while at the same time accounting for distribution grid constraints. Furthermore, we propose a non-optimal heuristic charging strategy based on limited trip and price information.

Our results show that the sole use of time-based electricity prices for the coordination of electric vehicle charging produces high load spikes for different strategies and charging power levels. These peaks are induced by simultaneous charging activity and may cause stability problems within distribution grids in residential areas. To mitigate these load spikes we introduce a spatial price component which reflects local capacity utilization. Such local prices induce both a temporal and spatial shift of charging activity which mitigates the load spikes.

Suggested Citation

Flath, Christoph M. and Ilg, Jens and Gottwalt, Sebastian and Schmeck, Hartmut and Weinhardt, Christof, Improving Electric Vehicle Charging Coordination Through Area Pricing (April 3, 2013). Transportation Science, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2197327 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2197327

Christoph M. Flath (Contact Author)

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology ( email )

Kaiserstraße 12
Karlsruhe, Baden Württemberg 76131
Germany

Jens Ilg

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology ( email )

Kaiserstraße 12
Karlsruhe, Baden Württemberg 76131
Germany

Sebastian Gottwalt

Research Center for Information Technology (FZI) ( email )

Haid-und-Neu-Str. 10-14
Karlsruhe, 76131
Germany

Hartmut Schmeck

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Kaiserstraße 12
Karlsruhe, Baden Württemberg 76131
Germany

Christof Weinhardt

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology ( email )

Kaiserstraße 12
Karlsruhe, Baden Württemberg 76131
Germany

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