EV Grouping and Distributed Coordination to Promote EV Flexibility Aggregation for Charging Station Operation

Electric vehicles (EVs) have experienced a rapid adoption in recent years, offering significant flexibility. However, directly managing and harnessing the flexibility of a large number of EVs remains challenging for the charging station operator (CSO) due to the high computational complexity and privacy concerns. This paper proposes an efficient distributed coordination method that incentivizes EVs participation in CSO operation while preserving privacy and scalability. We propose an EV aggregate flexibility fast evaluation model, where EVs are partitioned into several smaller groups based on their arrival and departure times. This enables efficient evaluation of aggregate flexibility by the EV aggregator (EVA). Distributionally robust chance constraint is introduced to account for uncertain arrival and departure times, ensuring reliable aggregate flexibility evaluation. A distributed algorithm is implemented to optimize EVA and CSO operations while fairly allocating benefit independently. A filtering mechanism is introduced to reduce communication overhead during iterative decision-making. The proposed coordination and benefit allocation mechanism ensures cost reductions for both the system and individual participants, enhancing EVA participation incentives. Case studies validate the effectiveness of our model and algorithm in achieving scalable and incentive EV flexibility management.