Profit-Aware EV Utilisation Model for Sustainable Smart Cities: Joint Optimisation over EV System, Power Grid System, and City Road Grid System

A sustainable city requires a sustainable means of transportation. This ambition is leading towards higher penetration of electric vehicles (EVs) in our cities, in both the private and commercial sectors, putting an ever greater burden on the existing power grid. Modern deregulated power grids vary electricity tariffs from location to location and from time to time to compensate for any additional burden. In this paper, we propose a profit-aware solution to strategically manage the movements of EVs in the city to support the grid while exploiting these locational, time-varying prices. This work is divided into three parts: (M1) profit-aware charging location and optimal route selection, (M2) profit-aware charging and discharging location and optimal route selection, and (M2b) profit-aware charging and discharging location and optimal route selection considering demand-side flexibility. This work is tested on the MATLAB programming platform using the Gurobi optimisation solver. From the extensive case studies, it is found that M1 can yield profits up to 2 times greater than those of its competitors, whereas M2 can achieve profits up to 2.5 times higher and simultaneously provide substantial grid support. Additionally, the M2b extension makes M2 more efficient in terms of grid support.