Optimal operation of electric vehicles in competitive electricity markets and its impact on distribution power systems

Since the hourly spot market price is available one day ahead in Denmark, the electricity price could be transferred to the consumers and they may make some optimal charge and discharge schedules for their electric vehicles in order to minimize their energy costs. This paper presents an optimal operation strategy for a Plug-In Electric Vehicle (PEV) in relation to the hourly electricity price in order to achieve minimum energy costs of the PEV. The western Danish power system, which is currently the grid area in the world that has the largest share of wind power in its generation profiles and may represent the future of electricity markets in some ways, is chosen as the studied power system in this paper. The impact of the optimal operation strategy for electric vehicles together with the optimal load response to spot market price on the distribution power system with high wind power penetrations are also discussed in the paper. Simulation results show that the proposed optimal operation strategy is an effective measure to achieve minimum energy costs of the PEV. The optimal operation strategy of the PEV and the optimal load response may have significant effects on the distribution power system normal operation.