Risk-Averse Decentralized Optimal Scheduling of a Virtual Energy Hub Plant Equipped with Multi Energy Conversion Facilities in Energy Markets

Distributed multi-energy systems, in addition to their advantages, pose significant challenges to future energy networks. One of these challenges is how these systems participate in energy markets. To overcome this issue, this paper introduces a virtual energy hub plant (VEHP) comprised of multiple energy hubs (EHs) to participate in the energy market in a cost-effective manner. Each EH is equipped with multiple distributed energy resources (DERs) in order to supply electrical, heating and cooling loads. Moreover, an integrated demand response (IDR) program and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capable electric vehicles (EVs) are taken into consideration to enhance the flexibility to EHs. The manager of the VEHP participates in the existing day-ahead markets on behalf of EHs after collecting their bids. Since EHs are independent entities, a hybrid model of mobile edge computing system and analytical target cascading theory (MECATC) is proposed to preserve data privacy of EHs. Further, to tackle the uncertainty of renewables, a robust optimization method is applied. Obtained results corroborated the proposed scheduling is efficient and could increase the VEHP’s profit about 21.4% in light of using flexible technologies

Machine Learning Based PEVs Load Extraction and Analysis

Transformation of the energy sector due to the appearance of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) has faced the researchers with challenges in recent years. The foremost challenge is uncertain behavior of a PEV that hinders operators determining a deterministic load profile. Load forecasting of PEVs is so crucial in both operating and planning of the energy systems. PEV load demand mainly depends on traveling behavior of them. This paper tries to present an accurate model to forecast PEVs’ traveling behavior in order to extract the PEV load profile. The presented model is based on machine-learning techniques; namely, a generalized regression neural network (GRNN) that correlates between PEVs’ arrival/departure times and traveling behavior is considered in the model. The results show the ability of the GRNN to communicate between arrival/departure times of PEVs and the distance traveled by them with a correlation coefficient (R) of 99.49% for training and 98.99% for tests. Therefore, the trained and saved GRNN model is ready to forecast PEVs’ trip length based on training and testing with historical data. Finally, the results indicate the importance of implementing more accurate methods to predict PEVs to gain the significant advantages in the importance of electrical energy in vehicles in the years to come

Hierarchical User-Driven Trajectory Planning and Charging Scheduling of Autonomous Electric Vehicles

Autonomous electric vehicles (A-EVs), regarded as one of the innovations to accelerate transportation electrification, have sparked a flurry of interest in trajectory planning and charging scheduling. In this regard, this work employs mobile edge computing (MEC) to design a decentralized hierarchical algorithm for finding an optimal path to the nearby A-EV parking lots (PL), selecting the best PL, and executing an optimal charging scheduling. The proposed model makes use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to assist edge servers in trajectory planning by surveying road traffic flow in real-time. Further, the target PLs are selected using a user-driven multi-objective problem to minimize the cost and waiting time of A-EVs. To tackle the complexity of the optimization problem, a greedy-based algorithm has been developed. Finally, charging/discharging power is scheduled using a local optimizer based on the PLs’ real-time loads which minimizes the deviation of the charging/discharging power from the average load. The obtained results show that the proposed model can handle charging/discharging requests of on-move A-EVs and bring fiscal and non-fiscal benefits for A-EVs and the power grid, respectively. Moreover, it observed that user satisfaction in terms of traveling time and traveling distance are increased by using the edge-UAV model