Distributed demand response for plug-in electrical vehicles in the smart grid

In this paper, we propose a new model of demand response management for the future smart grid that integrates plug-in electric vehicles. A price scheme considering fluctuation cost is developed. We consider a market where users have the flexibility to sell back the energy generated from their distributed generators or the energy stored in their plug-in electric vehicles. A distributed optimization algorithm based on the alternating direction method of multipliers is developed to solve the optimization problem, in which consumers need to report their aggregated load only to the utility company, thus ensuring their privacy. Consumers can update their load scheduling simultaneously and locally to speed up the optimization computing. Using numerical examples, we show the demand curve is flattened after the optimization, thus reducing the cost paid by the utility company. The distributed algorithm is also shown to reduce the users' daily bills.