Charging of electric vehicles utilizing random wind: A stochastic optimization approach

In this paper, we present a general stochastic framework for the optimization of charging of electric vehicles (EVs) utilizing wind energy. The framework considers different key components of the Smart Grid including stochastic wind energy, bulk and real-time purchase of energy from the grid operator, penalties or sell back of unutilized committed energy and flexible demand of the EV users. We formulate the joint vehicle charging and power purchase problem as a stochastic optimization program. Then we describe how to obtain its solution numerically. We also present a widely used alternative problem formulation using expected values of the random wind and real-time prices. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed framework and the significant performance gain compared to an expected-value approach.