A new approach to distributed charging control for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) tend to become more widespread in the next decades. However, large penetration of PHEVs will overload the distribution system. In smart grid, the charging of PHEVs can be controlled to reduce the peak load, which is known as demand side management (DSM). In this paper, we focus on the impact of PHEV charging on low-voltage transformers. The objective is to flatten the load curve of low-voltage transformers, while each consumer's requirement for their PHEV to be charged to the required level by their specified time is satisfied. We first formulate it as a convex optimization problem and then propose a distributed water-filling-based algorithm to solve it. Proofs of optimality and numerical simulations are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm.