Smart grid and electric transportation

The modern electric power grid with wind energy is a complex adaptive system under semiautonomous distributed control. It is spatially and temporally complex, non-convex, nonlinear and nonstationary with a lot of uncertainties. The integration of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles increases the complexity and challenges to the various controllers at all levels of the power grid. Charging large number of electric vehicles randomly or simultaneously without an intelligent infrastructure will increase the load on the electric grid causing adverse effects and increase in cost of electric vehicle usage. Intelligent scheduling of vehicles for charging and dynamic load forecasting will become of vital importance. On the other hand, electric vehicles with the use of vehicle-to-grid technology (gridable vehicles), information technology and advanced computational methods can make the electric grid efficient, reliable, distributed, clean and interoperable. This plenary talk will present some challenges to electric transportation and possible solutions, and the potentials of electric transportation in the smart grid.