A Game-Theoretic Decentralized Real-Time Control of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations - Part I: Incentive Design

Large-scale Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Station (CS) may be too large to be dispatched in real-time via a centralized approach. While a decentralized approach may be a viable solution, the lack of incentives could impair the alignment of EVs' individual objectives with the controller's optimum. In this work, we integrate a decentralized algorithm into a hierarchical three-layer Energy Management System (EMS), where it operates as the real-time control layer and incorporates an incentive design mechanism. A centralized approach is proposed for the dispatch plan definition and for the intra-day refinement, while a decentralized game-theoretic approach is proposed for the real time control. We employ a Stackelberg Game-based Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (SG-ADMM) to simultaneously design an incentive mechanism while managing the EV control in a distributed manner, while framing the leadership-followership relation between the EVCS and the EVs as a non-cooperative game where the leader has commitment power. Part I of this two-part paper deals with the SG-ADMM approach description, literature review and integration in the abovementioned hierarchical EMS, focusing on the modifications needed for the proposed application.