Electric vehicle charging through mobile charging station deployment in coupled distribution and transportation networks

Abstract

The interest in electric vehicles (EVs) has prominently increased in the recent years due to their state-of-the-art and environmentally-friendly structure. The fixed charging station (FXCS) investments, however, have lagged behind this increase, leading to many challenges for both the system operator (SO), such as power system reliability and stability, and the EV users, such as long charging times and range anxiety. In order to reduce the burden of FXCSs, in this study, mobile charging stations (MCSs) are considered and a novel energy management strategy is proposed for their optimal operation from the perspective of both the SO and EV users. The proposed optimization algorithm minimizes the total operation cost of the MCSs, which serve EVs located throughout the city, while accounts for the battery degradation cost of the MCSs. Furthermore, the proposed approach ensures the fairness between the MCS and FXCS operations by utilizing the Time-of-Use (TOU) tariff prices. The results are discussed in detail based on the operational costs, waiting time and power system impacts.