Management of EV charging stations under advance reservations schemes in electricity markets

As electric vehicles surpassed the 5.1 million-vehicle threshold in 2018, charging stations are becoming a growing necessity to allow electric vehicles charging while parked away from home. In addition, by harnessing the inherent flexibility of the charging process, charging stations can also provide services to the grid, such as frequency and voltage regulation. However, given that full-charge using state-of-the-art technology can take a minimum of nearly 30 min, drivers may face queues and uncertainty on the availability of charging sockets. To address this issue this work presents a model to determine the optimal management of charging stations using advance reservations. In the model, charging stations are assumed to participate in the energy and regulation markets, in addition to providing charging services to the vehicles. On the other hand, users are modeled using Satisficing decision model. The optimal management strategies are characterized by different charging tariffs and reservation fees, and their impact is analyzed in terms of the resulting charging profiles and welfare of electric vehicle users.