Optimal location of fast charging stations alongside pricing design from distribution company viewpoint considering renewable energy resource: A modified capacitated flow-capturing location model

Abstract

Investigating the optimal location of fast charging stations (FCSs) followed by optimizing the electricity sale prices simultaneously for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are considered as critical challenges in a power grid. This paper proposes the improved flow-capturing location model (FCLM) with mix-integer linear programming (MILP), in which the location of FCSs, alongside the electricity sale price to PEVs, is optimized so that the profit of the distribution company (DISCO) is maximized. Also, it considers renewable energy resources (RESs) to support FCSs. DISCO is assumed to be in charge of the cost of stations, the expansion network, RESs, and the electricity purchase from the network. The goal is to determine with how much price DISCO should sell the electricity to PEVs for the return on investment (ROI) rate to be positive at a specified time. Moreover, the PEV owners’ non-utilization function is considered in such a way that the electricity sale price to PEVs in stations has a direct relationship with the PEV owners’ non-utilization. In addition, the growth of PEVs, electric load, and electricity purchase from the network are considered. The proposed model has been implemented on a 25-node urban traffic network fed by a 33-bus distribution network. The results demonstrate that the investor provides electricity for PEVs with less price in the proposed model because the investment costs of FCSs are reduced by 34.4%. Also, by raising the PEVs’ charging demand, the electricity sale price in the station is reduced. In this condition, the utilization of PEV owners is maximized. Moreover, considering RESs reduces voltage drop and electricity sales price to PEVs.