Advanced Materials Research Vols.

724-725 (2013) pp 1355-1360 Online: 2013-08-16

© (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.724-725.1355

Optimal Planning of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Location Based

on Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization

Zheci Tang1,a, Chunlin Guo2,b, Pengxin Hou3,c, Yubo Fan4,d, Dongming Jia5,e
1
State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources
1
North China Electric Power University
1
Beijing, China
a
tangzheci05@163.com, bgcl@ncepu.edu.cn

Keywords: Electric vehicles; Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization; Charging stations location;
Optimal Planning

Abstract. In order to determine the layout of electric car charging stations, a model for optimizing
charging stations location is developed after charging-demand districts are divided, the number of
electric vehicles and the center of each charging district are ready. This model takes the minimization
of electric vehicles charging stations total cost which includes initial fixed investment costs, operating
costs and charging costs as the objective function, some related constraints which include service
radius, capacity of charging station etc. are considered. Particle swarm optimization based on
hybridization is proposed to solve this problem. The example verifies feasibility of this method.

Introduction
Currently, with the crisis of global fossil energy and the increasing seriousness of environmental
degradation, all the countries will pay attention to the development and application of new energy.
Exploration and research of large-scale electric vehicles has become one of the hot fields. At the same
time, with the development of economy and the improvement of people's income level, Markets
demand around the world for family cars are becoming more robust[1]. While having a certain positive
significance in improving the residents travel mode and promoting the development of the automobile
industry, it also had a negative impact on energy security and environmental protection. Under the
double pressures of the energy and the environment, the traffic industry accounted for 40% of total
energy use and nearly 25% of greenhouse gas emissions[2], is developing to the direction of electric
vehicles with low energy consumption and non-pollution. All countries are promoting the
development of electric vehicles. China committed that the greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 will be
reduced 40-45% than in 2005[3]. Low-carbon economy will become the development direction of
China. As one of the national strategic emerging industries, the electric vehicles will be the major part
of the new energy strategy and the smart grid. It expected that China will have a 20% share of new
energy vehicles in 2020 and electric vehicles will reach to 10 million. In order to meet with the power
market demand, one of the necessary conditions is improving the efficiency of the energy supply
network for the electric vehicles widely used. The distribution and quantity of the electric vehicles are
predicted in this paper. The optimum planning model for electric vehicle charging station is
established and the hybrid particle swarm algorithm is employed for solving the problem, which will
obtain the optimal layout of the charging stations.

The Optimal Planning Model for Charging Stations Location

The Prediction for the Number and Distribution of Electric Vehicles. The electric vehicle
charging station networks in urban consists of a certain number of charging stations, converter
stations and charging piles. In real life, due to that the drivers always drive to the nearest charging
station to charge the electric car, it forms a layout on the basis of geographical location and relatively
fixed charging destination[4-6]. Generally, living areas or business areas equipped with a parking lot

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1356 Applied Energy Technology

are relatively concentrated area of vehicles. In addition, according to the principle of regional traffic
flow conservation, for a certain area in the unit time,, the number of the electric cars entering and
leaving this area is consistent; And it is a constant value for the number of electric vehicles.
According to the above principles, the large areas are divided into several smaller areas. Similarly, the
number of electric cars is a constant value in every small programming area per unit time. The total
numbers of electric vehicles in small programming areas are treated as the number of the charging
service requirements in a charging station. The number of electric vehicles is predicted based on the
number of car ownerships for one thousand citizens and the population, and the predictive value
correction of the cell load is also considered ,which is expressed as follow:

 P
mi = F t bi λ i  i ∈ I JH
(1)
 Pn 

1
Pn =
n
∑
i ∈I
Pi . (2)
JH

Where, mi is the number of electric vehicle in the community i; t is the car ownerships per one
thousand citizens; bi is the population in the community i, λ is the electric vehicle share; Pi is the
load forecast value in the community i; Pn is the loads forecasting average value within the
programming scope; IJH is the community collection; F is the rounded up function; N is the
community set number[7].
The Electric Vehicle Charging Station Model. This paper is based on the following
assumptions:
(1) These non-industrial functional communities for living, business and service with centralized
population and vehicles are only considered for the distribution of electric cars.
(2) In a fixed period of charging, every demand of the electric car charging users is only
accomplished in the same charging station.
(3) Due to the properties of land use in the functional communities, the geometric center of the
communities can be thought as demand point of the EV charging. The distance between demand point
and the electric car charging stations is the traveling distance of electric vehicles[8].
In practice, it is necessary for the candidate station to consider geographic location, the difficulty of
land acquisition, the environmental and safety conditions. The following model is established.
mi n F = CR + CV + CE (3)
n
y(1 + y )t
CR = ∑ Cj
j =1 y(1 + y )t − 1
(4)

Cj = s1c d + s 2ct + s 3c f + c q (5)

n
CV = ∑ (1 + α )C
j =1
j
(6)

n
CE = zT yT d ∑ ∑g ij
ni j Di j Mi (7)
j =1 i ∈I j

ww
Td = 1 2
(8)
u
 Advanced Materials Research Vols. 724-725 1357

 pv 
n = F   +1 (9)
 24k1k 2η Se( s ) cos φ 

Among these formulas: Formula (3) is the annual comprehensive minimum costs of charging
stations, it contains the initial investment cost, the operating cost and the charge cost of a charging
station. Formula (4) and (5) is the initial investment cost of charging stations, s1 and cd means the land
area and its unit price respectively, s2 and ct indicates the number of distribution transformers and its
unit price, s3 and cf respectively denote the number of chargers and its unit price. cq is for the other
fixed costs, y is the return on investment, t is the years of return on investment, n is the number of new
charging stations; Formula (6) is the operating costs, it includes the maintenance fee, the material fee,
staff salaries, etc. α is convert coefficient. Formula (7) and (8) are the loss fees of electric vehicles
charging, Dij is the distance between the geometric center of the community i for charging and the
candidate station j, nij is the coefficient of road twists and turns, Mi is the electric car ownership in the
community i, gij is standard parameters, which restrains that the electric cars in the community i can
only charge in one charging station in a certain period of time. Ij is the collection of cars in the
community i charged in the charging station j. z is the loss cost per unit of distance for each electric car.
Ty is the days per year. Td is the daily charging average times of each electric vehicle. w1 is the
combined fuel consumption for the electric car driving 100 km. w2 is the daily travelled average
distance of electric vehicle, u is the state of charge(SOC) of traction battery for electric cars; Formula
(9) is the number of total charging stations, p is the charging power of one single electric car. v is the
total daily charging numbers of electric vehicles. k1 is the rate of charging at the same time, k2 is the
demand factor of chargers, η is the charge efficiency. S is the capacity of charging station. All
stations are in the same capacity. cos φ is the power factor, e( s ) is the load factor of charging
station.
Constraint condition:
n

∑g
j =1
ij
= 1 (10)

∑P
j ∈I j
j
≤ Sj e( Sj ) cos φj (11)

Di j ≤ des (12)

 des < Dev

 (13)
des < Dad < 2des

In formula (10) ~ (13), gij=0 means that the electric cars in the community i didn't charge in the
charging station j, gij=1 means the electric cars in the community i charge in the charging station j. Sj
is the distribution capacity for the j-th charging station. e(Sj) is the load rate of charging stations.
cos φj is the power factor of the charging stations. Pj is the total required load of the electric car for the
j-th charging station. des is the service radius of charging station; Dad is the actual distance between the
two neighboring charging stations. Dev is the reasonable mileage for electric vehicles moving at a
constant speed.

Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization

Particle Swarm Optimization is an evolutionary computation technique which is invented by
Dr.Eberhart and Dr.Kennedy. It is derived from the research of birds’ preying behavior. PSO is a
iterative optimization tool similar to the genetic algorithm. The system is initialized with a group of
1358 Applied Energy Technology

random solutions, and searches iteratively for the optimal value. But without the crossover and
mutation used by genetic algorithm, particles search in the solution space following the optimum
particle.
Standard PSO Algorithm Description. Within the PSO algorithm, each solution of the
optimization problem is like a bird of the search space. The bird is abstracted as a particle without
mass and volume, and being extended to the N dimensional space. The position of the i-th particle at
the n-dimensional space is represented by a vector and the flying velocity of each particle is also
represented by a vector.
All of the particles have a fitness value which is determined by the optimized function. Each
particle has a velocity determining the flying direction and distance. Particles they know their current
position and their own best position ever, which can be viewed as particles’ flying experience. In
addition, each particle also knows the best position found by all particles in the entire population,
which can be viewed as particles’ fellow experience. One particle makes the decision of the next
movement by its own experience and its companions’.
PSO algorithm initializes a group of random particles (as random solutions), then these particles
search in the solution space following the current optimum particles, i.e. find the optimal solution by
iterations. Assuming the position and velocity of the particle i in the d-dimensional search space are
X i = ( x i ,1, x i ,2 x i ,d ) and V i = (v i ,1, v i ,2 v i ,d ) . In each iteration, the particles update
themselves by tracking two optimal solutions, the first one found by themselves called individual
extreme, i.e. pbest, Pi = ( pi ,1, pi ,2 pi ,d ) the second one found by the entire population called
.
global optimal solution (i.e. gbest).

v i ,j (t + 1) = wv i ,j (t ) + c1r 1[ pi ,j − x i ,j (t ) ] + c2r 2[ pg ,j − x i ,j (t ) ] (14)

x i ,j (t + 1) = x i ,j (t ) + v i ,j (t + 1) , j = 1, 2, d (15)

Where w is inertia weight factor, c1 and c2 are positive learning factors, r1and r2 are random number
even distribution in 0 and 1.
For example, in the t-th iteration, the particles move from the current position X(t) to the next
position X(t+1) according to the formula (14) and the formula (15) in Figure 1,which is
two-dimensional space.

Fig 1. Schematic of the particles’ movement Fig. 2 Hybrid PSO algorithm flowchart

PSO Algorithm Based on Hybridization. Taking the hybrid concept in the genetic algorithm as
lessons, a specified number of particles are put into the hybrid pool according to the hybridization
 Advanced Materials Research Vols. 724-725 1359

probability in each iteration. The particles in the pool have the mutual hybridization, producing the
same number of child particles, and child particle replacing the parent particles. Child positions come
from the arithmetic crossover of parent positions.
chi l d( x ) = p ⋅ par ent 1( x ) + (1 − p ) ⋅ par ent 2( x )
or , chi l d( x ) = (1 − p ) ⋅ par ent 1( x ) + p ⋅ par ent 2( x )
Where, p is random number distribution in 0 and 1. Child speed is calculated by the following
formula:
par ent 1(v ) + par ent 2(v )
chi l d(v ) = par ent 1(v )
par ent 1(v ) + par ent 2(v )
par ent 1(v ) + par ent 2(v )
or , chi l d(v ) = par ent 1(v )
par ent 1(v ) + par ent 2(v )
The hybrid PSO algorithm process is shown in Figure 2.

The Example Analysis

According the data from literature [9], the planning zone, main for commerce and residents covers an
area of 10.5 km2. Planning Area Z, in accordance with the main roads, streets, land-use and other
factors, is divided into 28 charging-demand districts.The number of electric vehicles is 3140 in a plan
year and the geometric center of each charging district (i.e. electric vehicles’ quantity) is shown in
Figure 3. Parameter value is as follows: payback years t is 5, rate of return y is 0.1, conversion
coefficient α is 0.15, power factor of the charging station is cos φj =0.9, load rate e( Sj ) is 0.8, the
charger service radius R is 2.2 km, loss cost coefficient of electric vehicles z is 2.5 per kilometer,
battery capacity of electric vehicles u is 60kw per hour, the comprehensive energy consumption per
hundred kilometers w1 is 20kw per hundred kilometers, average daily mileage w2 is 140km,
coefficient of the road winding n is 1.2. The calculation about the fixed investment cost coefficient of
charging stations refers to literature [10]. Particles quantity N is 400,learning factors C1 and C2 are 2,
inertia weight w is 0.7, crossover probability Pc is 0.9, size ratio of the hybrid pool Sp is 0.2, iteration
times M is 10000.
According to the hybrid particle swarm algorithm[11], the result shown in Table 1 is that the total
annual cost is 25.036 million Yuan when seven charging stations in the planning area, which serve
respectively different charging-demand districts.The distance from electric vehicles to a respective
charging station is shortest within each region. Charging station’ distribution is shown in Figure 4.

Fig.3 Layout of charging-demand districts Fig.4 Charging station location and

region division
1360 Applied Energy Technology

Table 1. Algorithm Optimization Results

Charging station geographic Charging geographic
No. coordinates station No. coordinates
1 -0.33,3.41 5 1.17,2.51
2 -0.39,1.50 6 1.55,3.61
3 0.17,2.49 7 1.91,1.44
4 0.87,1.51

Conclusion
In this paper, the total amount and distribution of electric vehicles are predicted. A model for
optimizing charging stations location is developed after charging-demand districts are divided, the
number of electric vehicles and the center of each charging district are ready. This model takes the
minimization of electric vehicles charging stations total cost which includes initial fixed investment
costs, operating costs and charging costs as the objective function, some related constraints which
include service radius, capacity of charging station etc. are considered. Particle swarm optimization
based on hybridization is proposed to solve this problem. The example verifies feasibility of this
method. However, the layout planning of charging stations is a complex process, issues such as
diversification of electric vehicle’ charging patterns and influence of charging loads’ variation still
need further study.

References
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(24):15-19．
[2] United States Energy Information Administration ． International energy outlook
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[3] SCOTLAND W W F. The Role of Electric Vehicles in Scotiand’s Low Carbon Future, 2010.
[4] Chunyang Wu, Canbing LI, Li Du, et.a1. Automation of Electric Power Systems, 2010, 34(24):
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[5] Fengquan Zhou, Zhanwei Lian, Xiaolei Wang, et.a1. Power System Protection and Control,
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[6] Yulong Ren, Lefeng Shi, Qian Zhang, et.a1. Automation of Electric Power Systems, 2011,
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[7] Ruqi Li, Haoyi Su, Automation of Electric Power Systems, 2011, 35(14): 58-61.
[8] Carpinelli G, Cwlli G, Pilo F, et.a1. in: Distributed Generation Siting and Sizing under
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[9] Ling Li, Yanqing Li, Yuhai Yao, Man Ge, East China Electric Power, Vol. 39, No. 6, Jun. 2011.
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[11] BERGH F V D, An Analysis of Particle Swarm Optimizer, South Africa: University of Pretoria,
2002.
Applied Energy Technology
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.724-725

Optimal Planning of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Location Based on Hybrid Particle Swarm
Optimization
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.724-725.1355