Effectiveness of smart charging of electric vehicles under power limitations

This article investigates charging strategies for plug‐in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) as part of the energy system. The objective was to increase the combined all‐electric mileage (total distance driven using only the traction batteries in each PHEV) when the total charging power at each workplace is subject to severe limitations imposed by the energy system. In order to allocate this power optimally, different input variables, such as state‐of‐charge, battery size, travel distance, and parking time, were considered. The required vehicle mobility was generated using a novel agent‐based model that describes the spatiotemporal movement of individual PHEVs. The results show that, in the case of Helsinki (Finland), smart control strategies could lead to an increase of over 5% in the all‐electric mileage compared to a no‐control strategy. With a high prediction error, or with a particularly small or large battery, the benefits of smart charging fade off. Smart PHEV charging strategies, when applied to the optimal allocation of limited charging power between the cars of a vehicle fleet, seem counterintuitively to provide only a modest increase in the all‐electric mileage. A simple charging strategy based on allocating power to PHEVs equally could thus perform sufficiently well. This finding may be important for the future planning of smart grids as limiting the charging power of larger PHEV fleets will sometimes be necessary as a result of grid restrictions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Economic evaluation of fast charging electric vehicle station with second-use batteries energy storage system

由于电动汽车快速充电站大功率快速充电的特性会对电网的稳定造成冲击,因此考虑在电动车快速充电站中配置电池储能系统（BESS）,对充电站负荷进行削峰填谷,从而减少充电站变压器配置容量、缓解大功率快速充电对电网的不利影响。考虑到目前我国大量退役动力电池亟待回收利用的现状,结合梯次利用电池储能系统,建立了基于电动汽车快速充电站整体成本与收益的经济性评估模型,以快速充电站年净收益最大为目标函数,采用改进的遗传算法对模型优化求解。结合算例对快速充电站不配置储能、配置常规电池储能和配置梯次电池储能等不同情况进行了经济性评估,并综合考虑经济性与储能削减负荷的效果,确定了梯次电池储能系统最优容量配置方案。     

基于智能电网的电动汽车充放电分时电价及引导策略

为了以绿色、环保能源满足全球可持续发展的需求,可再生能源和电动汽车在全球范围内受到广泛推崇.在此情形下,高比例可再生能源发电和大规模电动汽车无序分散接入电网必将导致供求曲线的不稳定.为此,借助云存储技术和智能电网,提出了一种基于供求曲线的电动汽车充放电分时电价,并在制定充放电价格时考虑充电站的空闲率.以实现充电站和用户...     

Solar photovoltaic charging of lithium-ion batteries

Solar photovoltaic (PV) charging of batteries was tested by using high efficiency crystalline and amorphous silicon PV modules to recharge lithium-ion battery modules. This testing was performed as a proof of concept for solar PV charging of batteries for electrically powered vehicles. The iron phosphate type lithium-ion batteries were safely charged to their maximum capacity and the thermal hazards associated with overcharging were avoided by the self-regulating design of the solar charging system. The solar energy to battery charge conversion efficiency reached 14.5%, including a PV system efficiency of nearly 15%, and a battery charging efficiency of approximately 100%. This high system efficiency was achieved by directly charging the battery from the PV system with no intervening electronics, and matching the PV maximum power point voltage to the battery charging voltage at the desired maximum state of charge for the battery. It is envisioned that individual homeowners could charge electric and extended-range electric vehicles from residential, roof-mounted solar arrays, and thus power their daily commuting with clean, renewable solar energy.     

Multi-step constant-current charging method for electric vehicle,valve-regulated,lead/acid batteries during night time for load-levelling

For the popularization of electric vehicles (EVs), the conditions for charging EV batteries with available current patterns should allow complete charging in a short time, i.e., less than 5 to 8 h. Therefore, in this study, a new charging condition is investigated for the EV valve-regulated lead/acid battery system, which should allow complete charging of EV battery systems with multi-step constant currents in a much shorter time with longer cycle life and higher energy efficiency compared with two-step constant-current charging. Although a high magnitude of the first current in the two-step constant-current method prolongs cycle life by suppressing the softening of positive active material, too large a charging current magnitude degrades cells due to excess internal evolution of heat. A charging current magnitude of approximately 0.5 C is expected to prolong cycle life further. Three-step charging could also increase the magnitude of charging current in the first step without shortening cycle life. Four-or six-step constant-current methods could shorten the charging time to less than 5 h, as well as yield higher energy efficiency and enhanced cycle life of over 400 cycles compared with two-step charging with the first step current of 0.5 C. Investigation of the degradation mechanism of the batteries revealed that the conditions of multi-step constant-current charging suppressed softening of positive active material and sulfation of negative active material, but, unfortunately, advanced the corrosion of the grids in the positive plates. By adopting improved grids and cooling of the battery system, the multistep constant-current method may enhance the cycle life.     

Analysis of resonant coupling coil configurations of EV wireless charging system: a simulation study

Nowadays, internal combustion engine vehicles are considered as one of the major contributors to air pollution. To make transportation more environmentally friendly, plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) have been proposed. However, with an increase in the number of PEVs, the drawbacks associated with the cost and size, as well as charging cables of batteries have arisen. To address these challenges, a novel technology named wireless charging system has been recently recommended. This technology rapidly evolves and becomes very attractive for charging operations of electric vehicles. Currently, wireless charging systems offer highly efficient power transfer over the distances ranging from several millimeters to several hundred millimeters. This paper is focused on analyzing electromagnetically coupled resonant wireless technique used for the charging of EVs. The resonant wireless charging system for EVs is modeled, simulated, and then examined by changing different key parameters to evaluate how transfer distance, load, and coil’s geometry, precisely number of coin’s turns, coin’s shape, and inter-turn distance, influence the efficiency of the charging process. The simulation results are analyzed and critical dimensions are discussed. It is revealed that a proper choice of the dimensions, inter-turn distance, and transfer distance between the coils can result in a significant improvement in charging efficiency. Furthermore, the influence of the transfer distance, frequency, load, as well as the number of the turns of the coil on the performance of wireless charging system is the main focus of this paper.     

A centralized vehicle‐to‐grid scheme with distributed computing capacity engaging internet of smart charging points: Case study

In order to accommodate additional plug‐in electric vehicle (PEV) charging loads for existing distribution power grids, the vehicle‐to‐grid (V2G) technology has been regarded as a cost‐effective solution. Nevertheless, it can hardly scale up to large PEVs fleet coordination due to the computational complexity issue. In this paper, a centralized V2G scheme with distributed computing capability engaging internet of smart charging points (ISCP) is proposed. Within ISCP, each smart charging point equips a computing unit and does not upload PEV sensitive information to the energy coordinator, to protect PEV users’ privacy. Particularly, the computational complexity can be decreased dramatically by employing distributed computing, viz., by decomposing the overall scheduling problem into many manageable sub‐problems. Moreover, six typical V2G scenarios are analyzed deliberately, and based on that, a load peak‐shaving and valley‐filling scheduling algorithm is built up. The proposed algorithm can be conducted in real‐time to mitigate the uncertainties in arrival time, departure time, and energy demand. Finally, the proposed scheme and its algorithm are verified under the distribution grid of the SUSTech campus (China). Compared with uncoordinated charging, the proposed scheme realizes load peak‐shaving and valley‐filling by 11.98% and 12.68%, respectively. The voltage values are ensured within the limitation range by engaging power flow calculation, in which the minimum voltage values are increasing and the maximum voltage values are decreasing with the expansion of PEV penetration. What is more, the computational complexity of peak‐shaving and valley‐filling strategy is near‐linear, which verifies the proposed scheme can be carried out very efficiently.     

A novel multiobjective charging optimization method of power lithium‐ion batteries based on charging time and temperature rise

Power lithium‐ion batteries have been widely utilized in energy storage system and electric vehicles, because these batteries are characterized by high energy density and power density, long cycle life, and low self‐discharge rate. However, battery charging always takes a long time, and the high current rate inevitably causes great temperature rises, which is the bottleneck for practical applications. This paper presents a multiobjective charging optimization strategy for power lithium‐ion battery multistage charging. The Pareto front is obtained using multiobjective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) method, and the optimal solution is selected using technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method. This strategy aims to achieve fast charging with a relatively low temperature rise. The MOPSO algorithm searches the potential feasible solutions that satisfy two objectives, and the TOPSIS method determines the optimal solution. The one‐order resistor‐capacitor (RC) equivalent circuit model is utilized to describe the model parameter variation with different current rates and state of charges (SOCs) as well as temperature rises during charging. And battery temperature variations are estimated using thermal model. Then a PSO‐based multiobjective optimization method for power lithium‐ion battery multistage charging is proposed to balance charging speed and temperature rise, and the best charging stage currents are obtained using the TOPSIS method. Finally, the optimal results are experimentally verified with a power lithium‐ion battery, and fast charging is achieved within 1534 s with a 4.1°C temperature rise.     

Development of an optimal charging algorithm of a Ni-MH battery for stationary fuel cell/battery hybrid system application

When installed in stationary fuel cell/battery hybrid systems, sealed nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) battery packs have low rates of charging behavior at high temperatures. They can also be charged with surplus power from fuel cell system when they are part of a small-capacity fuel cell/battery hybrid system. Test results indicate that when subjected to high temperatures and low rates of charging current, a Ni-MH battery experiences a sharp reduction in discharge capacity but does not experience an increase in voltage. To solve these problems, we have applied a new charging algorithm based on this pulse charging method to a Ni-MH battery. The pulse charging method reduces the charging time by 2 hrs and has a charging efficiency of over 97%. The charging current factor (β) in this pulse charging method should influenced the controlling the charging rate to the battery with applied voltages. The results show a 27% increase in efficiency with the new charging method compared to the system efficiency of the conventional constant-voltage charging method. Such a pulse charging method is expected to increase the lifespan of a Ni-MH battery by inhibiting gas generation.     

Evaluation of distributed building thermal energy storage in conjunction with wind and solar electric power generation

Energy storage is often seen as necessary for the electric utility systems with large amounts of solar or wind power generation to compensate for the inability to schedule these facilities to match power demand. This study looks at the potential to use building thermal energy storage as a load shifting technology rather than traditional electric energy storage. Analyses are conducted using hourly electric load, temperature, wind speed, and solar radiation data for a 5-state central U.S. region in conjunction with simple computer simulations and economic models to evaluate the economic benefit of distributed building thermal energy storage (TES). The value of the TES is investigated as wind and solar power generation penetration increases. In addition, building side and smart grid enabled utility side storage management strategies are explored and compared. For a relative point of comparison, batteries are simulated and compared to TES. It is found that cooling TES value remains approximately constant as wind penetration increases, but generally decreases with increasing solar penetration. It is also clearly shown that the storage management strategy is vitally important to the economic value of TES; utility side operating methods perform with at least 75% greater value as compared to building side management strategies. In addition, TES compares fairly well against batteries, obtaining nearly 90% of the battery value in the base case; this result is significant considering TES can only impact building thermal loads, whereas batteries can impact any electrical load. Surprisingly, the value of energy storage does not increase substantially with increased wind and solar penetration and in some cases it decreases. This result is true for both TES and batteries and suggests that the tie between load shifting energy storage and renewable electric power generation may not be nearly as strong as typically thought.     

智能电网框架下电动汽车充电设施建设研究

电动汽车是解决能源和环境问题的重要手段之一,电动汽车充电设施是发展电动汽车所必须的重要配套基础设施。随着智能电网建设的推进及电动汽车的推广,电动汽车作为分散储能单元,成为智能电网的重要组成部分,必须将其纳入到智能电网建设的统一规划中。分析了电动汽车充电设施建设状况,影响因素,探讨了充电设施建设原则,提出了充电设施建设方案,并进行了风险评估。     

Regulatory framework and business models for charging plug-in electric vehicles: Infrastructure,agents, and commercial relationships

Electric vehicles (EVs) present efficiency and environmental advantages over conventional transportation. It is expected that in the next decade this technology will progressively penetrate the market. The integration of plug-in electric vehicles in electric power systems poses new challenges in terms of regulation and business models. This paper proposes a conceptual regulatory framework for charging EVs. Two new electricity market agents, the EV charging manager and the EV aggregator, in charge of developing charging infrastructure and providing charging services are introduced. According to that, several charging modes such as EV home charging, public charging on streets, and dedicated charging stations are formulated. Involved market agents and their commercial relationships are analysed in detail. The paper elaborates the opportunities to formulate more sophisticated business models for vehicle-to-grid applications under which the storage capability of EV batteries is used for providing peak power or frequency regulation to support the power system operation. Finally penetration phase dependent policy and regulatory recommendations are given concerning time-of-use pricing, smart meter deployment, stable and simple regulation for reselling energy on private property, roll-out of public charging infrastructure as well as reviewing of grid codes and operational system procedures for interactions between network operators and vehicle aggregators.     

On the business value of ICT-controlled plug-in electric vehicle charging in California

The increasing penetration of variable renewable energy, such as wind and solar, requires the deployment of large scale energy storage or dynamic demand side management. Leveraging the intrinsic energy storage potential of certain electric loads could be the key for an efficient transition to green power generation.Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are about to be introduced on a large scale. In this paper, we investigate the savings potential of electricity retailers resulting from the ability to control the charging behavior of a fleet of PEVs using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This savings potential is important as it could jumpstart the development of advanced control infrastructures for dynamic demand side management.The paper makes three major contributions: first, it applies a novel car usage model based on data from the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS). Second, it develops and evaluates several charging scheduling algorithms with low computational requirements. Third, it identifies several key parameters influencing the relative and absolute savings potential of ICT-controlled PEV charging.We obtain a relative savings potential of up to 45%. The absolute yearly savings per PEV, however, are rather small, which could limit the economic incentives of electricity retailers to deploy the required infrastructure.     

Economic and environmental evaluations of dedicated and residential electric tariffs for plug‐in electric vehicles

Plug‐in electric vehicle (PEV) owners may have multiple different electric tariffs offered by their local utility companies from which to choose. The offered PEV tariffs are designed mainly to shift the electric demand for charging cars to the time when the grid is less strained. This paper investigates both the economic and the environmental impacts of adopting dedicated PEV electric tariffs from the PEV owners' perspective. The overall conclusion is that the dedicated tariffs are well designed for PEVs from the economical perspective but not from the environmental perspective. Case studies of the cost minimization model show that on average the dedicated PEV tariffs will result in approximately half the cost of the electric bill and slightly lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (less than 1%) compared with the standard flat‐rate residential tariffs. Case studies of the emission minimization model show that the GHG emissions can be reduced by 10.47% as compared with the cost minimization model, but this will lead to an increase in the total charging cost that can be as high as 15.44% on average.     

Optimal operation of DC smart house system by controllable loads based on smart grid topology

From the perspective of global warming mitigation and depletion of energy resources, renewable energy such as wind generation (WG) and photovoltaic generation (PV) are getting attention in distribution systems. Additionally, all-electric apartment houses or residence such as DC smart houses are increasing. However, due to the fluctuating power from renewable energy sources and loads, supply-demand balancing of power system becomes problematic. Smart grid is a solution to this problem. This paper presents a methodology for optimal operation of a smart grid to minimize the interconnection point power flow fluctuation. To achieve the proposed optimal operation, we use distributed controllable loads such as battery and heat pump. By minimizing the interconnection point power flow fluctuation, it is possible to reduce the electric power consumption and the cost of electricity. This system consists of photovoltaic generator, heat pump, battery, solar collector, and load. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed system, results are used in simulation presented.     

Grid integration of intermittent renewable energy sources using price-responsive plug-in electric vehicles

Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are expected to balance the fluctuation of renewable energy sources (RES). To investigate the contribution of PEVs, the availability of mobile battery storage and the control mechanism for load management are crucial. This study therefore combined the following: a stochastic model to determine mobility behavior, an optimization model to minimize vehicle charging costs and an agent-based electricity market equilibrium model to estimate variable electricity prices. The variable electricity prices are calculated based on marginal generation costs. Hence, because of the merit order effect, the electricity prices provide incentives to consume electricity when the supply of renewable generation is high. Depending on the price signals and mobility behavior, PEVs calculate a cost minimizing charging schedule and therefore balance the fluctuation of RES. The analysis shows that it is possible to limit the peak load using the applied control mechanism. The contribution of PEVs to improving the integration of intermittent renewable power generation into the grid depends on the characteristic of the RES generation profile. For the German 2030 scenario used here, the negative residual load was reduced by 15–22% and the additional consumption of negative residual load was between 34 and 52%.     

Smart residential energy management system for demand response in buildings with energy storage devices

In the present scenario, the utilities are focusing on smart grid technologies to achieve reliable and profitable grid operation. Demand side management (DSM) is one of such smart grid technologies which motivate end users to actively participate in the electricity market by providing incentives. Consumers are expected to respond (demand response (DR)) in various ways to attain these benefits. Nowadays, residential consumers are interested in energy storage devices such as battery to reduce power consumption from the utility during peak intervals. In this paper, the use of a smart residential energy management system (SREMS) is demonstrated at the consumer premises to reduce the total electricity bill by optimally time scheduling the operation of household appliances. Further, the SREMS effectively utilizes the battery by scheduling the mode of operation of the battery (charging/floating/discharging) and the amount of power exchange from the battery while considering the variations in consumer demand and utility parameters such as electricity price and consumer consumption limit (CCL). The SREMS framework is implemented in Matlab and the case study results show significant yields for the end user.     

Solar photovoltaic charging of high voltage nickel metal hydride batteries using DC power conversion

There are an increasing number of vehicle choices available that utilize batteries and electric motors to reduce tailpipe emissions and increase fuel economy. The eventual production of electricity and hydrogen in a renewable fashion, such as using solar energy, can achieve the long-term vision of having no tailpipe environmental impact, as well as eliminating the dependence of the transportation sector on dwindling supplies of petroleum for its energy. In this report we will demonstrate the solar-powered charging of the high-voltage nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery used in the GM 2-mode hybrid system. In previous studies we have used low-voltage solar modules to produce hydrogen via the electrolysis of water and to directly charge lithium-ion battery modules. Our strategy in the present work was to boost low-voltage PV voltage to over 300 V using DC-DC converters in order to charge the high-voltage NiMH battery, and to regulate the battery charging using software to program the electronic control unit supplied with the battery pack. A protocol for high-voltage battery charging was developed, and the solar to battery charging efficiency was measured under a variety of conditions. We believe this is the first time such high-voltage batteries have been charged using solar energy in order to prove the concept of efficient, solar-powered charging for battery-electric vehicles.     

Design and experimental tests of control strategies for active hybrid fuel cell/battery power sources

Twenty-first century handheld electronic devices and new generations of electric vehicles or electric airplanes have fueled a need for new high-energy, high-power, small-volume, and lightweight power sources. Current battery technology by itself is insufficient to provide the mandatory long-term power these systems require. Fuel cells are also unable to provide the essentially high peak power demanded by these systems. Hybrid systems composed of fuel cells and secondary batteries could combine the high power density of clean fuel cells and the high energy density of convenient batteries. This paper presents an experimental study on control strategies for active power sharing in such a hybrid fuel cell/battery power source. These control strategies limited the fuel cell current to safe values while also regulating the charging current or voltage of the battery. The several tested control strategies were implemented in MATLAB/Simulink and then tested under the pulsed-current load condition through experiments. Experimental tests were conducted with three control objectives: maximum fuel cell power, maximum fuel cell efficiency, and adaptive.     

Impact assessment of electric vehicle charging/discharging strategies on the operation management of grid accessible and remote microgrids

This article deals with impact analysis of different electric vehicle (EV) charging/discharging strategies (CDS) on the operation and pollutant treatment cost of both grid accessible and remote microgrid (MG) modes. In this regard, EV demand is developed under four different scenarios, namely, uncoordinated charging model (UCM), load leveling model (LLM), maximum renewable model (MRM), and charging discharging model (CDM). A comprehensive study is performed to see the effect of these different EV charging/discharging behaviors in optimizing MG's operation. A 2m scheme of Hong's point estimate method (PEM) is applied to examine the effect of uncertainties linked with the forecasted errors in load demand, solar energy, wind energy, and grid price respectively on MG operation problem. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the effect of variations in battery parameters on economics of remote MG. The study results indicate that controlled charging of EVs can substantially improve operation of MG.