Cost and peak-to-average ratio reduction of electricity usage via intelligent EV charging

This paper mainly focuses on the minimization of total energy cost and reduction of peak-to-average ratio of energy usage for multiple homes in a community. Taking into account different characteristics of energy usage of a future home, such as whether an electric vehicle (EV) is available, whether the EV is for daily commute, as well as the battery charging characteristics, a constrained optimization problem is formulated. Two pricing schemes are considered, the real-time energy price from The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and a functional energy price which is not only based on the given ERCOT price pattern changing along with time, but also a function of the usage quantity of electricity during each time interval. It is demonstrated in this study that EV is going to play a major role in future home energy usage, as a result, intelligently charging EV would reduce the electricity cost dramatically and reduce the peak-to-average ratio of electricity usage.