Coordinated charging of electric vehicles connected to a net-metered PV parking lot

Although Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) are associated with zero tailpipe emissions, the electrical grid emissions due to charging of the vehicles are motivating the use of distributed generation. This paper proposes an optimal strategy to coordinate the charging of a large fleet of electric vehicles when connected to a net-metered PV parking lot in Victoria, British Columbia. The problem is cast as a mixed-integer linear programming problem using the CPLEX optimization tool to determine the optimal charge scheduling of vehicles based on seasonal solar potential. The algorithm is used to assess the minimal feeder capacity and the number of charging stations for the installation, as well as minimize the daily operational cost (OC). The daily OCs for coordinated and uncoordinated charging with and without net metered rooftop PV installations for each season of the year are compared. It is determined that implementing coordinated charging can have up to a 20% OC decrease, whereas coupling solar generation with coordinated charging results in a 14-96% decrease depending on the season and peak power.