Grid-Favorable, Consumer-Centric, On/Off Smart Charging of Electric Vehicles in a Neighborhood

Simultaneous, uncoordinated, rapid charging of electric vehicles (EVs) creates demand spikes, which can violate operational constraints of the grid and lead to equipment damage or failure. To address this, we propose a smart charging (SC) algorithm to control EV charging in a single-family residence. We propose a two-stage optimization approach which benefits both EV owners and the power utility. We assess the grid impact of the proposed strategy in a neighborhood setting via a randomized simulation study. Results show that in certain common cases, i) uncoordinated SC can create demand spikes, and ii) demand spikes can be mitigated at little-to-no cost to the customer using the proposed two-stage approach.