Electric mobility is generally regarded as an important component in reducing the consequences of climate change. In this context, WiSo Professor Wolfgang Ketter points out a particular problem:
„A transition to electric vehicles is widely assumed to be an important step along the road to environmental sustainability, however, large scale adoption of electric vehicles may put electricity grids under critical strain, since peaks in electricity demand are likely to increase radically”, Professor Ketter says.
Therefore, the more the number of users of electric vehicles (EVs) increases, the greater the challenge for electricity providers to ensure grid stability. Grid stability is achieved when there is a balance between production and consumption to ensure that the frequency remains stable. If the frequency in the grid drops or rises, electrical equipment and even important generators can be damaged.
Efforts are already being made to deal with peaks in demand through pricing. However, these can create new peaks at low cost times when a large number of EV owners are using smart tariffing to benefit from low prices.
Current approaches to electricity pricing have only limited ability to induce the desired demand profile, as Wolfgang Ketter and his co-authors - Konstantina Valogianni, John Collins and Dmitry Zhdanov - have shown in a recent study using simulations calibrated with real data.
In the study, the authors therefore present the method of adaptive pricing, which allows to learn from the reactions of EV owners to the prices and to adjust the announced prices accordingly. If these are sent to the owners of electric vehicles, demand can thus be shaped.
Using further simulations, the scientists proved that adaptive pricing significantly exceeds current electricity pricing and delivers results close to the theoretically optimal result. Adaptive pricing delivered robust results even when EV owners deviated from the assumed way in which the price reacted.