Fluctuations in electricity tariffs induced by the sporadic nature of demand loads on power grids has initiated immense efforts to find optimal scheduling solutions for charging and discharging plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) subject to different objective sets. In this paper, we consider vehicle-to-grid (V2G) scheduling at a geographically large scale in which PEVs have the flexibility of charging discharging at multiple smart stations coordinated by individual aggregators. In such a realistic setting, we first formulate the objective of maximizing the overall profit of both, demand and supply entities, by defining a weighting parameter. Assuming random PEV arrivals, we then propose an online decentralized greedy algorithm for the formulated mixed integer non-linear programming (MINLP) problem, which incorporates efficient heuristics to practically guide each incoming vehicle to the most appropriate charging station (CS). The better performance of the presented algorithm in comparison with an alternative allocation strategy is demonstrated through simulations in terms of the overall achievable profit, computational time per vehicle, and flatness of the final electricity load. Moreover, simulation results obtained for various case studies also confirm the existence of optimal values for V2G penetration percentage and number of deployed stations at which the overall profit can be maximized.
 The vehicle electrification will have a significant impact on the power grid due to the increase in electricity consumption. It is important to perform intelligent scheduling for charging and discharging of electric vehicles (EVs). However, there are two major challenges in the scheduling problem. First, it is challenging to find the globally optimal scheduling solution which can minimize the total cost. Second, it is difficult to find a distributed scheduling scheme which can handle a large population and the random arrivals of the EVs. In this paper, we propose a globally optimal scheduling scheme and a locally optimal scheduling scheme for EV charging and discharging. We first formulate a global scheduling optimization problem, in which the charging powers are optimized to minimize the total cost of all EVs which perform charging and discharging during the day. The globally optimal solution provides the globally minimal total cost. However, the globally optimal scheduling scheme is impractical since it requires the information on the future base loads and the arrival times and the charging periods of the EVs that will arrive in the future time of the day. To develop a practical scheduling scheme, we then formulate a local scheduling optimization problem, which aims to minimize the total cost of the EVs in the current ongoing EV set in the local group. The locally optimal scheduling scheme is not only scalable to a large EV population but also resilient to the dynamic EV arrivals. Through simulations, we demonstrate that the locally optimal scheduling scheme can achieve a close performance compared to the globally optimal scheduling scheme. In this paper, we show that an uncertain departure time significantly changes the analysis in optimizing the charging schedule of electric vehicles (EVs). We also obtain a closed-form solution for the stochastic optimization problem that is formulated to schedule charging of EVs with uncertain departure times in presence of hourly time-of-use pricing tariffs. This paper proposes a novel cooperative charging strategy for a smart charging station in the dynamic electricity pricing environment, which helps electric vehicles (EVs) to economically accomplish the charging task by the given deadlines. This strategy allows EVs to share their battery-stored energy with each other under the coordination of an aggregator, so that more flexibility is given to the aggregator for better scheduling. Mathematically, the scheduling problem is formulated as a constrained mixed-integer linear program (MILP) to capture the discrete nature of the battery states, i.e., charging, idle and discharging. Then, an efficient algorithm is proposed to solve the MILP by means of dual decomposition and Benders decomposition. At last, the algorithm can be implemented in a distributed fashion, which makes it scalable and thus suitable for large-scale scheduling problems. Numerical results validate our theoretical analysis. Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) has the potential of reducing the cost of owning and operating electric vehicles (EVs) while increasing utility system flexibility. Unidirectional V2G is a logical first step because it can be implemented on standard J1772 chargers and it does not degrade EV batteries from cycling. In this work an optimal combined bidding formulation for regulation and spinning reserves is developed to be used by aggregators. This formulation takes into account unplanned departures by EV owners during contract periods and compensates accordingly. Optional load level and price constraints are also developed. These algorithms maximize profits to the aggregator while increasing the benefits the customers and utility. Simulations over a three month period on the ERCOT system show that implementation of these algorithms can provide significant benefits to customers, utilities, and aggregators. Comparisons with bidirectional V2G show that while the benefits of unidirectional V2G are significantly lower, so are the risks.