A Capacity-Based Regulation Method for Coordinating Electric Vehicle Charging Flows in Coupled Distribution and Transportation Networks

The proliferation of electric vehicles (EVs) is bringing additional challenges to power distribution network (PDN) operations. Traditional regulation methods incentivize EVs to charge at expected places via price signals, which cannot guarantee a secure PDN operation due to uncertain responsiveness of EVs to charging prices. This paper explores the use of available EV charging station (EVCS) capacities as signals and proposes a regulation method to coordinate EV charging flows in coupled power and transportation networks. First, the proposed bi-level model optimizes the available charging capacities and schedules the least-cost power generation at the upper level, while assigning the traffic flows by user equilibrium and navigating the EV charging at the lower level. The adverse impact of EV charging behaviors on PDN operations is eliminated by the proposed model. Second, a branch price and cut-based decomposition algorithm is proposed to tackle the computational intractability and infeasibility brought about by the capacity regulation. Third, the inverse optimization technique is exploited to yield an enhanced regulation strategy that alleviates the impact of system adjustments on EV users. Finally, case studies are carried out on a practical network, which demonstrate the merits of the proposed capacity-based method over the traditional price-based method.