Management of Fluctuating Output Power of Renewable Energy Resources by Optimum Charge/Discharge Scheduling of Electric Vehicles in Smart Parking Lots

Abstract

The output power of renewable resources fluctuates because of their random nature, which can negatively affect the grid. This problem can be resolved by installing battery energy storage systems (BESS). On the other hand, with the increasing development of electric vehicles (EVs), the scheduling of their presence in the distribution networks has become very important; because, any unplanned presence of EVs in the smart parking lots (SPLs) and their simultaneous charging may affect the performance of the grid, negatively. An optimum scheduling for charge/discharge actions of EVs can resolve this problem, and reduce the need for high cost BESSs. In this paper, the problem of maximizing the operator profit is formulated as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem considering the constraints on the requested charge level of the EVs and the permissible exchanged power. Then, the problem is optimally solved, in which a scheduling scheme is proposed for charge/discharge actions of the EVs in the SPLs in order to control the power fluctuations. Simulation results on the data of a typical parking lot in Tehran demonstrate that the proposed scheduling can reduce the number of required BESSs significantly, which decreases the high expenses of the BESS purchase and installation.