Optimal Sizing and Locations of Fast Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles Considering Power System Constraints

With the increasing adoption of electric vehicles, it becomes crucial to ensure that Fast Charging Stations (FCSs) are strategically located and adequately sized to establish a dependable and accessible charging infrastructure. This study investigates the critical issue of optimizing the size and location of these stations, considering total costs, including investment costs, operation and maintenance costs, cost of power system loss, and power system reliability costs. To address this challenge, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), a powerful optimization technique, is employed to identify the optimal sizes and locations of FCSs. The PSO enables the consideration of complex relationships among variables such as Electric Vehicles (EVs) demand, station capacity, and power system limitations. From the perspective of the Transmission System Operator (TSO), the impact of FCSs on power system reliability has been evaluated using an Energy Not Supplied (ENS) index to evaluate power system reliability costs. Simulation results on the 193-bus test system in northeastern Thailand, conducted with Power Factory DIgSILENT software, validate the effectiveness of our proposed model and method. The results demonstrate that our approach not only identifies the optimal placement and size of FCSs with minimal overall costs but also ensures the operational security of the power system. The proposed method can solve the problem rapidly and accurately. Additionally, power system reliability is considered a criterion in the proposed method.