An Energy Scheduling Scheme for Highway Microgrids Virtually Networked by Electric Operation and Maintenance Vehicles

Promoting the penetration level of renewable energy in highways plays a key role in realizing a low-carbon and efficient transportation system. In this regard, this paper proposes an energy scheduling scheme considering the flexibility of Electric Operation and Maintenance Vehicles (EOMVs) to enhance the highway microgrids’ operation economics and renewable energy self-sufficiency rate. First, a differentiated delay-time based dynamic time-space network (TSN) model is established to fully exploit the temporal and spatial flexibility of EOMVs. Afterward, electric vehicle (EV) battery swapping demand in highway service areas, the battery charging/discharging and inventory coupling, the operation and maintenance tasks of EOMVs, and diesel generators (DG) output constraints are considered to establish an energy scheduling scheme for minimizing the total of the power generation cost, the EOMVs’ transportation cost, the wind/photovoltaic power curtailment cost, and the EV swapping cost in highway microgrids. In such a way, the navigation route of EOMVs, the charging/discharging of swappable batteries and DG outputs are optimized with energy mutually supported among highway microgrids. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed energy scheduling scheme is verified by the simulation results of practical highway microgrids.