Randomized response electric vehicles for distributed frequency control in smart grid

Frequency control is essential to maintain the stability and reliability of power systems. Traditionally, generation side controllers have been used to stabilize the system frequency upon contingencies; however, they incur high operational cost. Enabling demand response in next generation smart grids is thus a promising alternative to reduce the power system dependency on expensive controllers. In particular, demand response of distributed electric vehicles (EVs) via controlled charging/discharging power from/to the grid can be an effective method to help stabilize the system frequency. In this paper, we propose a new distributed frequency control algorithm for EVs with randomized responses and characterize its performance in a large-scale dynamic power system in terms of the mean of the system frequency over time, the mean frequency recovery time, and the expected number of responded EVs upon a contingency. Finally, we validate our analysis via simulations under a practical power system setup.