An Optimisation Approach for the Location of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations from a Local Authority’s Perspective

Recent studies demonstrate a growing adoption of plug-in battery electric vehicles (EV'S) as an alternative for conventional petrol or diesel vehicles. However some limitations, such as the high price, but also the limited driving range and the lack of public charging infrastructure, slow down the market development.
Driven by regulations of city climate planning with goals in terms of reduced CO2- emissions and improved air quality, local authorities start to recognize the need to enable the electromobility market by providing citizens access to public charging infrastructure.
We present a location planning model for EV'S to be used by municipal authorities. A maximal covering approach is applied to optimize the service level of the existing de- mand. In terms of potential locations the power supply in the surroundings of parking spots is of great importance. The demand is estimated based on the results of a recent study in Belgium concerning market potential for (plug-in hybrid) EV's. Additional tem- poral constraints to be taken into account concern the varying demand in residential districts and business districts during the day and night and the charging time of the batteries.
Of particular interest for the municipal authorities are the sensitivity analyses with the model in terms of budget. The model is also applied to different scenarios with respect to the maturation stage of the EV market in order to provide an efficient investment plan for the roll-out of the charging stations infrastructure.