Efficient charging coordination of electric vehicles: A consensus tracking control approach

Participating in climate change mitigation requires addressing the escalating use of electric vehicles (EVs) and their integration with the power grid. Inefficiencies in energy utilization during the EV charging process occur due to power losses. To foster an energy-efficient system and support sustainable energy resource utilization, this paper introduces a consensus tracking control method for effective EVs charging coordination in a charging station. The primary aim is to reduce charging power losses and efficiently use the available power at the charging stations. The approach involves formulating power deviations of EVs and designing control gains. Graph theory is employed to create the communication network between EVs and the charging station. The consensus tracking algorithm facilitates the updating of local information, sharing of external information among neighboring EVs and the charging station, and ensures the convergence of the consensus goals. To demonstrate the proposed method, the consensus tracking controller is applied to an EV system based on both random parameters and commercial models’ parameters. The proposed method is evaluated for its fundamental performance using a system with three EVs, and for its scalability with a system comprising ten EVs, all within the Matlab/Simulink environment. Simulation results indicate that with commercial EV models, charging coordination is effectively managed while achieving the target EVs’ state of charge (SoC). In addition, the approach reduces power losses and maximizes the charging efficiency maintaining power losses in AC charging within 0.18 %–0.66 % and below 6.73 % in DC fast charging. Furthermore, the proposed consensus tracking method consistently converges regardless of varying EVs’ arrival and departure times.