A Compensation Mechanism for EV Flexibility Services using Discrete Utility Functions

TL;DR

This paper introduces a compensation mechanism for electric vehicle charging flexibility that accounts for user preferences using discrete utility functions, validated through a real-world inspired test scenario.

Contribution

It proposes a novel compensation mechanism based on discrete utility functions for EV flexibility management, with a mathematical proof and validation using synthetic and real data.

Findings

The mechanism effectively compensates users for energy not served.

It is beneficial for both charging point operators and users.

Validation shows the mechanism's practical applicability.

Abstract

Compensation mechanisms are used to counterbalance the discomfort suffered by users due to quality service issues. Such mechanisms are currently used for different purposes in the electrical power and energy sector, e.g., power quality and reliability. This paper proposes a compensation mechanism using EV flexibility management of a set of charging sessions managed by a charging point operator (CPO). Users' preferences and bilateral agreements with the CPO are modelled via discrete utility functions for the energy not served. A mathematical proof of the proposed compensation mechanism is given and applied to a test scenario using historical data from an office building with a parking lot in the Netherlands. Synthetic data for 400 charging sessions was generated using multivariate elliptical copulas to capture the complex dependency structures in EV charging data. Numerical results validate the usefulness of the proposed compensation mechanism as an attractive measure both for the CPO and the users in case of energy not served.