Smart Charging of Electric Vehicles According to Electricity Price

The growing popularity of private vehicles' electrification will have a negative impact on the electric power system, especially on the distribution networks, if electric vehicles (EVs) charging is not managed properly. In this paper, a new technique for smart charging of EVs is proposed and tested with simulation. A fuzzy logic controller is used to control and manage the EV charging process to maximize electric utility and EV owner benefits. The electric utility's benefit is to mitigate the EV charging impacts on the distribution network by shifting EV charging to the off-peak period, while EV owners' benefit is to charge the EV at low cost. The controller regulates and controls the EV charging power depending on electricity price signal provided by the electric utility and EV battery state of charge (SoC). This controller needs basic communication with the electric utility to receive the electricity price signal every 1 hour. The objective of the controller is to charge EVs at low cost while keeping the normal operating conditions of the distribution network. MATLAB/SIMULINK is used to perform simulations and test the effectiveness of the proposed smart charging method. The results demonstrated that the proposed smart charging method reduced the impacts of EVs charging on the distribution network compared with uncontrolled charging.