A simulation-based heuristic for city-scale electric vehicle charging station placement

Electric Vehicles (EVs) play an important role towards a more sustainable transportation system. Sufficient charging infrastructure is, however, needed in order to accommodate their power demand and increase EV adoption. In this paper, we propose a simulation-based approach for charging station (CS) placement using an agent-based traffic simulation. The heuristic's objective is to achieve sufficient network coverage to keep charging related inconvenience within an acceptable range while minimising the overall number of CSs. For this purpose, the algorithm identifies locations at which the charging procedure seamlessly integrates into the drivers' itineraries, thus minimising detours and waiting times. At the same time, the algorithm attempts to maximise the utilisation of each CS throughout the day in order to minimise the number of CSs. The methodology is demonstrated at the example of Singapore. The investigation shows that the charging demand of 20,000 EVs can be covered with approximately 2,500 CSs by accepting average detours no greater than 410 metres and average waiting time below 10 minutes. This number can be further reduced by relaxing the inconvenience criterion.