The vigorous development of electric vehicles (EVs) is an important means of reducing carbon emissions and mitigating environmental problems such as the greenhouse effect. Battery swapping stations (BSSs) can both provide battery swapping services for large-scale EVs and charge batteries centrally. As the supply of fully charged batteries in the BSS shrinks, it becomes necessary to schedule the charging of the depleted batteries rapidly that users have swapped for fully-charged ones. The charging schedule for depleted batteries must be made without knowledge of future battery arrivals. In this context, this paper develops a mathematical model for online charging scheduling of BSSs, formulates the charging strategy as a two-dimensional rectangle packing problem, and quickly calculates the scheduling arrangement of batteries by partitioning the remaining available capacity of a BSS. Since there are limited battery types within the BSS which can provide battery replacement services, this paper supplements the proposed model with known battery types, which improves the utilization of the available capacity of BSSs. Finally, numerical results verify the effectiveness of the proposed model.Note to Practitioners—Electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming an alternative way to reduce carbon emissions in transportation systems. Herein, the optimal battery charging problem is the core problem when it comes to dispatching a huge number of EVs. Up to now, battery-swapping is widely used for EVs due to its simple, convenient way. Furthermore, a business model for the battery swapping stations (BSSs) is brought up, where EV users send their depleted batteries to the BSS and the BSS provides the users with a fully charged replacement battery from its warehouse, which only takes a few minutes. Since the maximum charging power of the BSS is limited by the capacity of the transformer connecting the BSS to the power grid, the BSS will adopt an optimal charging schedule that maximizes the charging benefit for large quantities of depleted batteries in the warehouse. However, the challenge is that the charging schedule for depleted batteries must be made without knowledge of future battery arrivals because the EV behaviors are difficult to predict. To address this problem, this paper developed an online charging scheduling algorithm, which formulates the charging strategy as a two-dimensional rectangle packing problem. The proposed method can provide battery replacement services in real-time and solve quickly without any information about incoming depleted EV batteries. The proposed model and method have been tested on the system with different numbers of batteries to show the effectiveness. Besides, the online two-dimensional rectangle packing problem can provide an online decision for BSSs.

Traditionally, the electric distribution system operates with uniform energy prices across all system nodes. However, as the adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs) propels a shift from passive to active distribution network (ADN) operation, a distribution-level electricity market has been proposed to manage new complexities efficiently. In addition, distribution locational marginal price (DLMP) has been established in the literature as the primary pricing mechanism. The DLMP inherits the LMP concept in the transmission-level wholesale market but incorporates characteristics of the distribution system, such as high$R/X$ratios and power losses, system imbalance, and voltage regulation needs. The DLMP provides a solution that can be essential for competitive market operation in future distribution systems. This article first provides an overview of the current distribution-level market architectures and their early implementations. Next, the general clearing model, model relaxations, and DLMP formulation are comprehensively reviewed. The state-of-the-art solution methods for distribution market clearing are summarized and categorized into centralized, distributed, and decentralized methods. Then, DLMP applications for the operation and planning of DERs and distribution system operators (DSOs) are discussed in detail. Finally, visions of future research directions and possible barriers and challenges are presented.

Load aggregators (LAs) play a key role in fully tapping the demand response (DR) resources of small and medium-sized end-users to enable a more flexible power grid. In the ancillary service market, the LA can provide DR to the system by aggregating the resources of its users. In response to the issued DR program, end-users offer to provide DR resources. To help optimize the user bidding strategy, an evolutionary game model is presented here in view of the bounded rationality of bidders. A combined Q-learning and compound differential evolution (CDE) algorithm is proposed to deal with the problems of incomplete information and uncertainties in the opponents’ decision-making, and prevent the evolutionary stable strategy (ESS) from falling into a local optimum. Moreover, a cloud-computing-based framework is designed and agent servers are introduced to protect data privacy. Numerical results show that by adopting the proposed algorithm, the user's bidding price keeps slightly lower than the opponents’ price which guarantees its revenue remains on a high level. This indicates that the proposed algorithm has good adaptability for addressing incomplete information and uncertainties in opponents’ decision-making.

To solve large-scale smart meter verification and periodic replacement problems, a remote estimation method based on neural network filter (NNF) and generalized damping recursive least square (GDRLS) is proposed. In this article, a smart meter error estimation model with a loss noise filter is built. A typical loss noise filter is designed with a neural network, so that the filtered loss noise meets the Gauss–Markov condition, which paves the way for the best linear unbiased estimation (BLUE). GDRLS algorithm is applied to solve the novel estimation model, which can effectively address the problem that large loss estimation errors merge small smart meter errors. Then, a complete process of the proposed method is constructed, which can estimate both the user smart meter errors, and the loss noises accurately. Finally, the effectiveness, superiority, and applicability of the proposed method are verified through simulation analysis and practical distribution network application.