Pareto optimality in cost and service quality for an Electric Vehicle charging facility

Abstract

This paper examines the problem of planning an Electric Vehicle (EV) charging facility that provides a high quality of service in charging EVs and incurs a low cost to the facility manager. This problem is challenging because a facility with a larger charging capacity (hence better service quality) can be more expensive to build and operate. This paper contributes to the literature by planning an EV charging facility that overcomes this trade-off and achieves Pareto optimality, i.e. a facility with a higher quality of service but at a lower cost. We propose an optimization model to size an EV charging facility that minimizes the facility cost and guarantees a high quality of service. To reduce the cost further and negate the cost increase from quality service quality, we adopt demand management strategies. Two strategies are explored, namely Stationary Demand Management (a local energy storage system) and Mobile Demand Management (rescheduling charging sessions of EVs). The proposed model produces a facility that guarantees a high quality of service in charging EVs at a minimal cost. A facility with demand management strategies achieves a higher service quality but at a lower cost, compared to a facility without demand management strategies. Stationary Demand Management can reduce the cost similarly to Mobile Demand Management, while the latter can be more challenging in practice due to the compliance issues and demand uncertainty of the drivers.