Collaborative Optimization Method of Power Distribution Network and Urban Transportation Network: A Review

The over-reliance on fossil energy sources has resulted in massive greenhouse gas emissions. Research on the utilization of renewable energy has been widely encouraged. However, the extensive application of distributed renewable energy (DER) brings much operating pressure to the power distribution network (PDN). Meanwhile, the rapid development of electric vehicles (EVs) brings additional charging demand to PDN as well as traffic flows to urban transportation network (UTN). This paper reviews the optimization methods of PDN and regulation methods of UTN, and introduces a management structure named distribution-transportation coordinated network (DTN) that could be used to optimize PDN and UTN collaboratively. Under this structure, the DER generations in PDN could be consumed locally by EVs in UTN, which promotes the operating efficiency of PDN; on the other hand, optimized allocations of DERs in PDN could in turn improve the traffic flow of UTN. In the future, as hydrogen technology becomes more mature, this method would play a greater role in the onsite consumption of renewable energy.