Synergistic control of plug-in vehicle charging and wind power scheduling

Significant synergy exists between plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and wind energy: PEVs can be the demand response to mitigate the intermittent wind power outputs, and wind energy can provide low-carbon electricity to PEVs. This paper presents a hierarchical control algorithm to realize this synergy by integrating the PEV charging and wind power scheduling. The control algorithm consists of three levels: the top-level controller optimizes the scheduling for the conventional power plants and wind power; the middle-level controller plans PEV charging to achieve load following based on the battery state of charge and plug-off time of each vehicle; the bottom-level controller uses grid electricity frequency as the feedback cue to control PEV charging and serves as the ancillary service to the grid. Numerical simulations show that the integrated controller can improve the grid frequency regulation and overall electricity generation cost without sacrificing the PEVs charging completion.