Multi-objective electric vehicle charging scheduler with configurable objective hierarchy
The present invention relates to a method for scheduling charging of electric vehicles by an electric vehicle charging system, wherein charging objectives to be considered in generating a charging schedule for one or more charging stations of the charging system are obtained, a hierarchy of the charging objectives is determined and the charging schedule is generated by performing a lexicographic optimization based on the hierarchy of the charging objectives.
1. A method for charging batteries of electric vehicles, the method comprising the steps of:
providing, by a scheduling apparatus, base objectives,
obtaining, from an entirety of the base objectives, by a processor of the scheduling apparatus, charging objectives to be considered in generating a charging schedule for one or more charging stations configured for charging the batteries of the electric vehicles;
determining, by the processor of the scheduling apparatus, a hierarchy of the charging objectives;
generating, by the processor of the scheduling apparatus, the charging schedule by performing a lexicographic optimization based on the hierarchy of the charging objectives, wherein the charging objectives include at least one of minimization of electricity cost, minimizing peak loads, maximizing photovoltaics self-consumption, minimizing battery degradation, maximizing provisioning of grid services and minimizing the amount of discharging; and
charging the batteries of the electric vehicles using the one or more charging stations by controlling and specifying, based on the charging schedule, at least one of charging or discharging power, charge current, charge curve and charge amount for each charging station, wherein the hierarchy is adjusted to changing conditions, wherein at least one condition of a controlling apparatus for controlling the one or more charging stations based on the charging schedule is assigned to the corresponding base objective and at least one state or change of the condition is assigned to a corresponding position in the hierarchy.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein
the charging schedule is generated or generated again upon request; and
the request includes at least one of information on the charging objectives and information on the hierarchy.
3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein
in the determining step, the hierarchy of the charging objectives is set in accordance with a preset hierarchy or is determined by modifying the preset hierarchy based on the information included in the request.
4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein
the information on the charging objectives indicates the most frequently selected charging objectives by users and the information on the hierarchy indicates the most frequently selected hierarchies by the users.
5. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising at least one of the steps:
reducing a number of the charging objectives by determining and removing, from the obtained charging objectives, at least one of a redundant charging objective, a charging objective that is not applicable and a charging objective that is automatically fulfilled, wherein the reduced number of the charging objectives corresponds to a number of optimization problems to be solved in the lexicographic optimization; and
reducing the number of the optimization problems by combining at least two charging objectives that have a solution optimizing both the at least two charging objectives into one optimization problem.
6. A program that, when running on a computer or loaded onto a computer, causes the computer to execute the method according to claim 1 .
7. An electric vehicle charging system, comprising a scheduling apparatus, charging stations for charging batteries of electric vehicles and a controlling apparatus for controlling charging stations based on the charging schedule,
wherein the scheduling apparatus is configured to provide base objectives and, from an entirety of the base objectives, to obtain charging objectives to be considered in generating a charging schedule for one or more charging stations of the electric vehicle charging system, to determine a hierarchy of the charging objectives, and to generate the charging schedule by performing a lexicographic optimization based on the hierarchy of the charging objectives,
wherein the charging objectives include at least one of minimization of electricity cost, minimizing peak loads, maximizing photovoltaics self-consumption, minimizing battery degradation, maximizing provisioning of grid services and minimizing the amount of discharging,
wherein the controlling apparatus is configured to control the charging stations to charge the batteries of the electric vehicles by controlling and specifying, based on the charging schedule, at least one of charging or discharging power, charge current, charge curve and charge amount for each charging station, and
wherein the hierarchy is adjusted to changing conditions, wherein at least one condition of the controlling apparatus is assigned to the corresponding base objective and at least one state or change of the condition is assigned to a corresponding position in the hierarchy.
8. The electric vehicle charging system according to claim 7 , wherein
the controlling apparatus is configured to transmit, to the scheduling apparatus, a request for generating the charging schedule;
the request includes at least one of information on the charging objectives and information on the hierarchy, and
the processor is configured to determine the hierarchy of the charging objectives based on the information included in the request.
9. The electric vehicle charging system according to claim 8 , wherein
the controlling apparatus is configured to determine at least one charging objective selected by a user and to transmit the request including information on the at least one selected charging objective, and
the processor is configured to modify a preset hierarchy of the charging objectives based on the at least one selected charging objective to determine the hierarchy.
10. The electric vehicle charging system according to claim 8 , wherein
the controlling apparatus is configured to determine a hierarchy of the charging objectives selected by a user and to transmit the request including information on the selected hierarchy, and
the processor is configured to determine the hierarchy in accordance with the selected hierarchy.
11. A method for charging batteries of electric vehicles, the method comprising steps of:
obtaining, by a processor of a scheduling apparatus, charging objective to be considered in generating a charging schedule for one or more charging stations configured for charging the batteries of the electric vehicles;
determining, by the processor of the scheduling apparatus, a hierarchy of the charging objectives;
generating, by the processor of the scheduling apparatus, the charging schedule by performing a lexicographic optimization based on the hierarchy of the charging objectives, wherein the charging objectives include at least one of minimization of electricity cost, minimizing peak loads, maximizing photovoltaics self-consumption, minimizing battery degradation, maximizing provisioning of grid services and minimizing an amount of discharging; and
charging the batteries of the electric vehicle using the one or more charging stations by controlling and specifying, based on the charging schedule, at least one of charging or discharging power, charge current, charge curve and charge amount for each charging station; and
at least one of the steps of:
reducing a number of the charging objectives by determining and removing from the obtained charging objectives, at least one of a redundant charging objective, a charging objective that is not applicable and a charging objective that is automatically fulfilled, wherein the reduced number of the charging objectives corresponds to a number of optimization problems to be solved in the lexicographic optimization; and
reducing the number of the optimization problems by combining at least two charging objectives that have a solution optimizing both the at least two charging objectives into one optimization problem.
12. An electric vehicle charging system, comprising a scheduling apparatus, charging stations for charging batteries of electric vehicles and a controlling apparatus for controlling charging stations based on a charging schedule,
wherein the scheduling apparatus is configured to obtain charging objectives to be considered in generating a charging schedule for one or more charging stations of the electric vehicle charging system, to determine a hierarchy of the charging objectives, and to generate the charging schedule by performing lexicographic optimization based on the hierarchy of the charging objectives,
wherein the charging objectives include at least one of minimization of electricity cost, minimizing peak loads, maximizing photovoltaics self-consumption, minimizing battery degradation, maximizing provisioning of grid services and minimizing an amount of discharging,
wherein the controlling apparatus is configured to control the charging stations to charge the batteries of the electric vehicles by controlling and specifying, based on the charging schedule, at least one of charging or discharging power, charge current, charge curve and charge amount for each charging station,
wherein the scheduling apparatus is further configured to:
reduce a number of the charging objectives by determining and removing, from the obtained charging objectives, at least one of a redundant charging objective, a charging objective that is not applicable and a charging objective that is automatically fulfilled, wherein the reduced number of the charging objectives corresponds to a number of optimization problems to be solved in the lexicographic optimization; and/or
reduce the number of the optimization problems by combining at least two charging objectives that have a solution optimizing both the at least two charging objectives into one optimization problem.