End-user engagement in EV charging control at commercial locations through a user-friendly approach

Controlled electric vehicle (EV) charging at commercial locations has been seen as the key solution to mitigate the negative effects of uncontrolled charging on the power grid. In the scientific literature, EV users’ willingness to participate in charging control has been analyzed, and various control algorithms have been studied. However, there is a gap regarding the best practices to encourage users to participate in charging control and the potential influences of the EV users’ decisions on charging site operator's profits. In this article, the EV users’ perspective on charging control is assessed to form a user-friendly charging control approach and compensation scheme for commercial charging locations. Then, simulations are carried out using real charging session data to analyze the potential influences of EV users’ decisions on charging site operator's profits. According to the results, the profits of the charging site operator are more heavily dependent on the number of customers than the optimality of the charging control. Hence, charging site operators should carefully consider the attractiveness of the implemented control strategy to maximize profits.