Engineering PapersSearch

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “smart charging”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 37 records · Page 2

Communications Reliability for Vehicle Grid Integration

Electric Vehicles (EVs) adoption rate has been steadily increasing in the US leading to a growing number of charging stations including faster DC (Direct Current) chargers and slower Level 1 and Level 2 AC (Alternating Current) chargers. This increase in demand for electricity is further exacerbated by recent developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, advanced manufacturing, and digitization. These factors will require electric utilities to upgrade their infrastructure to keep up with the increasing electrical demand (especially during peak hours). An easy way to counteract the need for these upgrades is to shift a major chunk of active charge sessions (durations where there is energy transfer from charger to EV's propulsion battery) to off-peak hours thereby flattening the load curve and making the infrastructure more resilient. This concept is known as Smart Charge Management (SCM). EV owners also benefit from SCM since it lowers their charging costs and consequently their transportation costs by prioritizing charging during off-peak hours. SCM takes advantage of EV's capability to act as a controllable load or DER (Distributed Energy Resource). This report summarizes the reliability analysis performed on the communication required for two of these SCM use-cases. This analysis only focuses on SCM strategies for unidirectional charging (energy transfer from EVSE to EV or V1G) and not bidirectional charging.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION

Key Performance Indicators for Vehicle Grid Integration

Electric vehicle (EV) sales account for a rapidly growing portion of the light-duty vehicle market and a portion of medium and heavy-duty fleet vehicles. However, in many locations, charging stations will require costly utility grid upgrades with long lead times. Today, there are a few methods of smart charge management (SCM) which can reduce the costs and wait times for electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) interconnection approvals, as well as reduce impacts of the charging stations on the grid and on EV driver transportation costs. It is crucial for the EV charging industry to understand the vehicle grid integration (VGI) requirements for EVSE to prevent adverse impacts from EVSE interconnections and assure that charging loads and interconnections are affordable.

33 - ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS

EV Profile Capture 2025: Next-Gen Profiles Project Report

As part of the Next-Gen Profiles (NGP) project, the profile capture and analysis of production electric vehicles undergoing high-power charging (HPC) is conducted over a wide range of conditions to explore variance and performance. Charge session parameters are collected from both the electric vehicle (EV) and electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) at a rate of 10Hz and entered into a time-series database for analysis. These charge profiles are captured under nominal and off-nominal conditions, exploring the impact of starting battery state of charge (SOC), battery temperature, vehicle condition, smart charge management (SCM), EVSE limitations and charging adapter usage. Nominal conditions are defined as ideal conditions that should transfer the maximum allowable energy in the minimum possible amount of time. Nominal condition profiles are compared across EVs to characterize state-of-the-art EV charging performance against one another. Off-nominal condition profiles are compared against their nominal condition profile counterparts to highlight the variance across less desirable starting conditions within a single EV.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS

EVs@Scale Next-Gen Profiles - EV Profile Capture 2024

As part of the U.S. DOE EVs@Scale consortium Next-Gen Profiles (NGP) project, the profile capture and analysis of production electric vehicles undergoing high power charging (HPC) is conducted over a wide range of conditions to explore variance and performance. Charge session parameters are collected from both the electric vehicle (EV) and electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) at a rate of 10Hz and entered into a time-series database for analysis. These charge profiles are captured under nominal and off-nominal conditions, exploring the impact of battery state of charge (SOC), battery temperature, vehicle condition, smart charge management (SCM), and EVSE limitations. Nominal conditions are defined to be ideal conditions that should transfer the maximum allowable energy in the minimum possible amount of time. Nominal condition profiles are compared across EVs to characterize state-of-the-art EV charging performance against one another. Off-nominal condition profiles are compared against its nominal condition profile counterpart to highlight the variance across less desirable starting conditions within a single EV. This EV Profile Capture 2024 report stands as an update from the EV Profile Capture 2023 report to include the additional EV & EVSE assets tested and analyzed in 2024. The major updates within this report include the addition of three next-generation electric vehicles, added test cases, and further analysis. This expansion of analysis includes power profiles, power distribution, quantifying SOC, energy and range performance, EVSE limitation impacts, boost converter performance, etc. Additionally, NGP time-series data has been used as input towards three national laboratory-led grid modelling efforts: ANL’s IEEE-37 HIL model, INL’s Caldera model, and NREL’s EVI-X model. A summary of these platforms and how NGP has worked to improve their effectiveness has also been added to this years’ report.

Thurston, Sam

EV Forecasting-Based Model Predictive Control for Distribution System Congestion Mitigation

The uncoordinated charging of electric vehicles (EVs) in time and space brings congestion issues to the distribution network. This paper proposes an EV charging demand forecasting-based model predictive control (MPC) method for distribution system congestion management. To effectively forecast the time-series EV station charging demand, a hybrid forecasting model that integrates the long short-term memory network (LSTM) and Transformer is proposed. The Transformer-LSTM model is trained using a one-year real historical charging dataset of EV stations to forecast future charging demand in 15-minute intervals. This informs the MPC for distribution network congestion management and minimization of PV curtailment. Numerical results carried out on the modified IEEE 123-bus distribution system demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively resolve line congestion issues through EV smart charging and PV curtailment while outperforming other benchmarks.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,SOLAR ENERGY

Analyzing SCM Grid Benefits from Electric Transportation [Slides]

Increasing adoption of EVs and expanding unmanaged charging loads could increase the cost of transportation energy due to increasing load variability and shrinking infrastructure capacity. The actual cost of transportation energy, such as charging an EV, depends on several factors including energy costs, charging infrastructure costs, and applicable grid upgrades. Based on studies from past DOE projects; RECHARGE, DirectXFC, FUSE and 21st Century Truck Partnership (21CTP) the EV-CENTS project will develop a transportation energy cost metric to better quantify these factors and provide a framework for assessing the value potential of new technology solutions, such as smart charge management (SCM), which could reduce these costs for all stakeholders. The initial assessment will focus on the cost of charging, which will vary across vehicle classes such as light-duty vehicles (LDV) or medium and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDV), as well as across different vocations resulting in many different use cases for this metric. Cost of charging results will be developed for each use case in both uncontrolled and controlled scenarios to understand the value potential of different SCM objective functions and their ability to optimize the cost of energy and delay or eliminate the need for electrical upgrades.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS

Unsupervised Detection of SOC Spoofing in OCPP 2.0.1 EV Charging Communication Protocol Using One-Class SVM

The electric vehicles (EVs) market keeps growing globally; thus, it is critical to secure the EV charging communication protocols in order to guarantee reliable and fair charging operations among the customers. The Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) 2.0.1 supports the communication between the Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) and Charging Station Management Systems (CSMSs); therefore, it becomes vulnerable to several types of attacks, which aim to jeopardize smart charging, billing, and energy management. Specifically, OCPP 2.0.1 allows the self-reporting of the State of Charge (SOC) values, which makes it vulnerable to spoofing-based cyberattacks, which target manipulating the scheduling priorities, distorting the load forecasts, and extending the charging sessions in an unfair manner. In this paper, we try to address this type of attack by providing a comprehensive analysis of the SOC spoofing attacks and introducing a novel unsupervised detection framework based on the One-Class Support Vector Machine (OCSVM) algorithm. Specifically, two types of attack scenarios are analyzed (i.e., priority manipulation and session extension) by deriving engineered features that capture the nonlinear relationships under normal charging behavior. Detailed simulation-based results are derived by utilizing the DESL-EPFL Level 3 EV charging dataset. Our results demonstrate high F1-score and recall in identifying spoofed SOC values and that the proposed OCSVM model demonstrates superior performance compared to alternative clustering and deep-learning based detectors.

EV charging

Spatially Resolved Domicile Charging Demands for Light-, Medium-, and Heavy-Duty Electric Vehicles in Virginia

The use of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and resulting grid impacts are likely to grow rapidly, and evaluation of optimal smart charge management and grid integration strategies is warranted now. Evaluating distribution grid impacts requires fine-grained models of PEV operations to estimate charging loads across diverse vehicles at high spatial resolution. We propose such a model and consider a high-electrification scenario in Richmond and Newport News, Virginia. Our framework considers four categories of vehicle that are amenable to early aggressive electrification: light-duty passenger vehicles (LDV), trucks and vans with a focus on delivery or other local operations, school buses, and transit buses. These vehicles have a relatively consistent domicile, reducing the need for public charging infrastructure rollout to electrify. We apply a recent LDV model and propose new models for each vocation of medium- and heavy-duty vehicle, leveraging telematics data. We demonstrate our framework in Virginia and find energy demands in the region may total 15 GWh day, with most consumed by LDV. However, considering power demand at high spatial resolution reveals a different trend: LDVs have relatively small peak loads at specific sites (peak site demand around 800 kW) compared to average and high demand medium- and heavy-duty vehicle charging sites (peak site demand around 6,000 kW at a transit bus depot, 1,500 kW at a local freight hub, and 1,000 kW at a school). Our framework yields insights on the relative impacts of each vocation and enables future work to tailor grid integration strategies to each vehicle category.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS

EVs@Scale: NextGen Profiles EVSE Characterization 2025

As part of the U.S. DOE EVs@Scale consortium, the Next-Generation Profiles (NextGen Profiles [NGP]) project presents analysis and results from the characterization of high-power conductive and wireless charging infrastructure. High Power Charging equipment is capable of recharging electric vehicle traction batteries at power levels of 200KW and above. Electric Vehicle Service Equipment (EVSE) characterization involves testing over a wide range of DC charging currents and voltages during nominal and off-nominal conditions. This testing allows for a better understanding of the impact that high-power charging will have on the electric grid. A common set of standard test plans, procedures, and data requirements were applied to the characterization in this document with minor updates and improvements. This report covers all conductive characterization activities performed between October 2024 and September 2025 on the Delta Electronics 350KW Electric Vehicle Charging System, consisting of power cabinet model EIDN-U350KTA01 and dispenser model EIDD-U350SSUUAEG-350.Key Findings include: Output regulation, Efficiency and power factor, Load management, Grid Resilience, Smart Charge Management (SCM) performance, Thermal control system performance, Multi-port simultaneous charging performance, and Selected performance comparisons with other EVSEs characterized in the NextGen Profiles project. Hot and cold temperature testing was not conducted on the Delta 350KW due to laboratory limitations. Future research could include continued testing the Delta hardware under off-nominal temperature conditions including multi-port/multi-session simultaneous charge testing, in addition to collecting data on other high-power conductive chargers to augment.

25 ENERGY STORAGE

Bounding the costs of electric vehicle managed charging—supply curves for scenarios from 2025 to 2050

As electric vehicle (EV) adoption increases, the resulting EV battery charging will increase demand on the electric power grid. Through EV managed charging (EVMC) programs, charging can be shifted in time to support electric grid reliability and reduce electricity costs. EVMC can offer an alternative to additional supply-side generation, but the costs of EVMC implementation must be understood to evaluate the cost-benefits of EVMC. This paper presents bottom-up, forward-looking (from 2025 through 2050) estimates of the incremental costs associated with different EVMC dispatch mechanisms available to electric utilities. The costs of enabling EVMC for a range of customer participation levels are presented in the form of supply curves, which provide per-EV costs for a targeted level of participation. The largest drivers of cost variation are assumptions about future charging flexibility paradigms described in four scenarios. These supply curves can be used to quantify the expected costs of EVMC programs and enable comparison with supply-side or other demand flexibility alternatives.

25 ENERGY STORAGE

GridPIQ Reference Data

GridPIQ uses dozens of publicly available datasets to provide context for a user's grid project, as well as defaults for users to choose from. Users can choose to import their own data to better customize their analysis or use GridPIQ-supplied defaults. This allows users to get up and running with an analysis very quickly without having to spend significant time pulling together input data. To run an electric vehicle (EV) smart charging project, a user will need to provide or select from prepopulated values for the regional load profile shape and peak load, region of interest and closest weather station, EV charging profile, number of EVs to add for the analysis, maximum EV charging power, location of chargers relative to grid infrastructure, and allowable charging times (for coordinated charging mode). The outputs of the analysis are changes in air quality, EV energy consumption, EV peak demand, and EV hourly consumption profile—before and after project implementation." For a detailed description of the tool methodology, including all the publicly available datasets used by the tool, see the [GridPIQ documentation](https://gridpiq.pnnl.gov/v2-beta/doc/).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI

DistOPF: Advanced Solutions for Distribution Optimal Power Flow Analysis - DistOPF v0.2 Documentation

To achieve an affordable and reliable energy system, research on power distribution system is often focused on integration of distributed generators, energy storage solution, EV charging, smart meters, and other advanced assets that may benefit from or require more advanced control and optimization techniques. Despite this focus on advanced distribution system topics, early researchers and grid scientists often start from scratch when developing optimization programs for power distribution systems. This report introduces DistOPF, a Python package that consolidates years of research into a versatile and modular tool. DistOPF provides researchers with essential capabilities to solve distribution system Optimal Power Flow (OPF) problems using standard network models. Additionally, it offers a platform to benchmark both new and existing algorithms against established test systems.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION

Data Quality Assessment of Optiwatt Vehicle Telematics Data

In October 2024, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) received data from Optiwatt (Compass Global, Inc.) describing the driving and charging behavior of electric vehicle (EV) drivers. The data shared had been collected from approximately 10,000 vehicles and included vehicle specifications, driving information like odometer readings at the beginning and end of origin-destination pairs (i.e., trips with identification of home for trip start and end for Tesla vehicles), and charging information such as charging energy consumed per charge session and if the charge occurred at home. The vehicle data were provided from 9 EV makes and 18 EV models, with production years ranging from 2012–2024, but more than 9,500 of the vehicles were Tesla EVs. The data includes more than six million trips and more than three million charging events that occurred between June 2023 to Aug 2024 and collected from California and the Eastern United States. The purpose of this report is to review the quality of the data received from Optiwatt and the feedback INL received from Optiwatt after data concerns were shared with them.

33 - ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS

Integrating Electric Vehicles into the Grid

Historically, transportation and power systems operated independently, but the rise of electric vehicles is transforming this relationship. In the United States, EV demands are expected to become the largest source of electricity load growth, posing challenges for the grid if not properly managed. This presentation highlights how managed charging strategies and strategic infrastructure deployment can integrate EVs into the power system to enhance grid efficiency and support renewable energy.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSI

V1G Frequency Regulation: Algorithm Development, Validation & Analysis at Scale

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory developed and validated a high-fidelity digital twin of a smart charging (V1G) ecosystem to model the participation of up to 1,000 unique electric vehicles (EVs) in the PJM frequency regulation market. Utilizing a discrete-event framework, the simulation models complex interactions, from dynamic grid signals (updated every 2 seconds) to individual EV charging dynamics. The simulation incorporates multiple EV models created from real-world lab test data. Researchers tested multiple control algorithms to balance the dual objectives of maximizing aggregator’s revenue and driver charging needs. Results demonstrate that aggregated EVs function as a controllable, highly effective grid resource, achieving high PJM Performance Scores (80–90%). Additionally, an optimized, market-aware bidding strategy was identified as key to profitability. The platform was shown to provide drivers with an average charging discount of nearly 50%. The algorithm was further validated in the lab using production EVs and charging stations to compare simulation results with real-world performance.

Manne, Nithin

Optimal Managed Fast-Charging Model for Electric Vehicle Fleets with High Utilization and Multiple Charge-Acceptance Curves

A predictive control/scheduling optimization model is proposed for managed charging of an electric vehicle (EV) fleet - under time-of-use energy and demand prices, high vehicle utilization frequency (short dwell times), multiple charge- acceptance curves (configurable charging rates), and flexible vehicle demand. This context is particularly relevant for flight schools (small electric aircraft) or other commercial facilities where an EV fleet performs multiple operating and fast-charging sessions on the same day. The proposed model performs both the operational and charging scheduling of the vehicles, which is not typically done for residential managed charging and significantly increases problem complexity. The problem is formulated as a MILP model and a case study of a small fast-charging station is presented. Results demonstrate a significant reduction in operating cost, mainly from peak shaving during high demand price periods, achieved by coordinating the operation of different vehicles, chargers and charging rates.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,ENERGY PLANNING, POLIC

An Agent-Based Modeling Approach for Spatiotemporal Optimization of Electric Vehicle Fast-Charging Station Demand

With increasing electric vehicle (EV) adoption, managing public fast-charging demand effectively is crucial to avoid grid strain. This study investigates the potential of using dynamic pricing schemes to address this challenge. Presented in this study is a scalable agent-based simulation framework, which is applied to a case study in Richmond, Virginia, that assumes a 50% EV adoption rate in 2040. Two pricing schemes are compared: (1) a dynamic-pricing scheme based on station utilization and (2) a dynamic-pricing scheme based on peak power at the station. These schemes are compared to two baseline scenarios: (1) unscheduled first-come, first-served and (2) scheduled with constant price. The study’s results suggest that dynamic pricing has the potential to influence EV charging behavior, inducing both spatial and temporal shifts, but does so at the cost of inducing inconvenience to EV drivers. The results suggest the peak-power dynamic pricing scheme has the potential to mitigate peak demand pressures on the grid with minimal inconvenience, offering a promising approach for sustainable EV charging infrastructure expansion.

33 - ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS

EVs@Scale FUSE Project Review

This project will analyze and demonstrate SCM and VGI approaches to reduce grid impacts from EVs@Scale as a result of the charging needs of the LD, MD, and HD on-road electrified fleet.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS