Electric Vehicle Charging Right Trading: Concept, Mechanism, and Methodology

With the increasing penetration of electric vehicles (EVs), uncoordinated EV charging and the resulting chaos, disorder, and long waiting times at EV charging stations (EVCSs) will no longer be tolerable. An EV charging right (CR) is the right to reserve a predefined charging service. By purchasing CRs, EVs can reduce their charging waiting time, and the price of CRs can guide EVs toward optimized charging behaviors. In this article, we define CR, propose the CR trading mechanism (CRM), and analyze the effect of CRM on reducing waiting times and mitigating congestion in EV charging. In the proposed CRM, EVs can purchase CRs in advance, and the CRs are used to estimate the waiting time and update the price of charging. Queue theory is utilized in the waiting time estimation, in which the impact of disclosing queue states at EVCSs is considered for the first time. The simulation results verify the accuracy of the waiting time estimation and the effect of the proposed mechanism.