CAR Seminar: Control and optimization in energy systems--using the integration of electrified vehicle charging and renewable generation as an example

Abstract

Systematic control and optimization schemes can address complicated dynamics in energy systems, ranging from responses of individual apparatuses to interactions among apparatuses and sectors. Properly-designed control and optimization schemes can improve energy efficiency, reduce energy use, and alleviate negative environmental impacts. Take the charging of plug-in electrified vehicles (PEVs) as an example, a grid-friendly charging scheme needs to consider the traveling range, battery state of charge, commute patterns of the vehicle fleet, and the supply and demand of electricity on the grid with increasing uncertainty due to renewable generation. Integrating PEV charging and renewable generation can be a win-win situation if the battery charging of PEVs can be controlled to absorb fluctuations in renewable generation, leading to better utilize of renewable generation to charge PEVs. In this talk, control and optimization schemes will be presented to realize such a synergy. In terms of PEV charging, a control algorithm is developed to address the vehicle-level objective (battery charging) and the grid-level objective (avoiding transmission congestion) simultaneously. To integrate PEV charging and wind generation, a hierarchical control structure is proposed to fuse the control algorithms previously developed with a scheduling optimization, which utilizes the PEV fleet as reserves to hedge wind uncertainty. The framework of integrating PEV charging and wind scheduling can be expand to study other aspects in energy systems; for example, a carbon price is investigated as an aggressive means to curb CO2 emissions from electricity generation, and the scheduling optimization is extended to demonstrate how multiple objectives (generation cost and environmental externality) can be systematically prioritized.

About the Speaker

Chiao-Ting Li is currently the Shell Energy Fellow and works as a Postdoctoral Researcher for the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She received her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan in 2013. Her research interests center around the control and optimization of dynamics in energy systems, particularly those related to electrified vehicles and renewable power sources. She has worked on powertrain designs for split hybrid vehicles, charging controls for plug-in vehicles, vehicle-grid integration, and various control schemes to accommodate wind energy in grid operations. Her paper on battery sizing and control to mitigate wind intermittency won the best paper in section in the American Control Conference (ACC) in 2013, and her paper on split hybrid vehicle design was selected as the semi-plenary presentation in the Dynamic Systems and Control Conference (DSCC) in 2012. She was an active crew member in the U-M Solar Car Team, working on race strategy optimization for the 2008 American Solar Challenge, in which the team won the championship.

Hosted by Professor Giorgio Rizzoni