Dynamic Programming of Electric Vehicle Reservation Charging and Battery Preheating Strategies Considering Time-of-Use Electricity Price

Abstract

Electric vehicles can effectively make use of the time-of-use electricity price to reduce the charging cost. Additionally, using grid power to preheat the battery before departure is particularly important for improving the vehicle mileage and reducing the use cost. In this paper, a dynamic programming algorithm is used to optimize the battery AC (Alternating Current) charging–preheating strategy to minimize the total cost of battery charging and preheating, with the charging current and battery preheating power consumption as the control variables. The cost difference between the optimized control strategy and the conventional preheating strategy was analyzed under different ambient temperatures (−20~0 °C) and different target travel times (7:00~12:00). The simulation results show that the optimized control strategy makes the state of charge (SOC) and temperature of the battery reach the set value at the user’s target departure time, and the total cost of the grid is the lowest. Compared with the conventional preheating strategy, the optimized control strategy can utilize the power grid energy in the valley price area and reduce the opening time of the positive temperature coefficient (PTC) heater in the flat and the peak price zones. Furthermore, the cost utilization rate can reach 18.41~73.96%, and the cost-saving effect is significant.