A Framework for an Optimization Process to Locate Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

To reduce the huge amounts of harmful gases emitted from vehicles emissions and to improve the environmental conditions, countries need to start planning and encouraging the use of electric vehicles (EVs). However, before extensively using EVs, charging stations need to be planned to meet the changing needs of electric vehicles. These charging stations need to be placed at various locations so that they can serve the maximum number of EVs, without significant delays. In this paper, a procedure for optimizing the locations of EVs charging stations is presented. The proposed approach uses the simulation software DYNASMART to simulate different percentages of EVs under different traffic congestion levels. To be able simulate EVs in DYNASMART, two main components have to be coded in the software. First, a subroutine is added to simulate EVs (i.e., tracking the battery charge level). The second component considers the operations within the charging stations. Additionally, an optimization procedure is proposed to optimize the location of EVs charging stations. The problem considers predefined possible locations of the charging stations based on the electric grid system (m possible locations). The optimization procedure seeks to determine the best location for a set of (n) charging stations (n ≤ m). The objective function of this model includes two components, which are the waiting and traveling time to the charging station and it is subject to several constrain.