A Tri-level Optimization Approach for Cooperative Operation of Power and Transportation Network

With the rapid development of electric vehicles (EVs), the interdependence between urban transportation networks (UTN) and power distribution networks (PDN) will be greatly strengthened. To achieve optimal allocation and coordinated scheduling of electricity and transportation energy, coupled power and transportation networks (CPTN) are expected to play a major role in the future energy internet. We propose a tri-level optimization model aimed at multi-agent coordinated operation in CPTN. At the upper level (UL), the PDN operator influences the operational decisions of the charging network operator (CNO) and UTN operator by setting the electricity supply price. At the middle level (ML), the CNO determines a reasonable charging service fee and the amount of alternative energy based on the electricity purchase price and traffic flow distribution. At the lower level (LL), the UTN operator makes route choices and charging decisions based on the electricity purchase price and charging service fee. To effectively solve the proposed tri-level model, it is reformulated as an equivalent bilevel problem and solved using a Column-and-Cut Generation (C&CG) algorithm variant designed to handle cross-level bilinear terms. Numerical studies validate the effectiveness of the proposed model and method, demonstrating the impact of CNO alternative energy on the operations of multiple stakeholders.