Power Grid Load Management using Electric Vehicles: A Distributed Resource Allocation Approach

Technological advancements in modern age has introduced complex networks and multi-agent systems all around us. The main aim of multi-agent systems is to implement local control laws to achieve a global objective. The Distributed Resource Allocation (DRA) approach has been utilised in this paper for successful incorporation of a large number of Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) with the power grid. The DRA approach has been used to find an optimal charging strategy for all PEVs such that it satisfies the power grid objective in terms of the smoothening and flattening of grid load profile. The consensus protocol, an application of DRA approach has been implemented to provide a fair scheme of charging strategy to each individual PEV connected to the grid based on their commitment factor.