Optimizing Electric Truck Routing and Charging with Soft Time Windows Using Vehicle-to-Grid Technology

Abstract

Due to the rapid increase in the use of electric vehicles and instability in energy supply, the application of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology has gained attention in the freight transportation sector. V2G has the potential to increase the efficiency of power grid and make additional profits by utilizing surplus power from electric vehicle batteries. This paper proposes an optimization model for electric trucks (ETs) to provide operational decision-making support for the freight transportation sector. The objective of the model is to minimize the total net cost, which includes charging cost, discharging reward, and time penalties, while considering changes in ET charging cost and the system marginal price. Furthermore, we conduct sensitivity analysis in the vehicle routing problem with soft time windows using ETs in the V2G system.