Charging Station Planning for Electric Vehicles

Charging station (CS) planning for electric vehicles (EVs) for a region has become an important concern for urban planners and the public alike to improve the adoption of EVs. Two major problems comprising this research area are: (i) the EV charging station placement (EVCSP) problem, and (ii) the CS need estimation problem for a region. In this work, different explainable solutions based on machine learning (ML) and simulation were investigated by incorporating quantitative and qualitative metrics. The solutions were compared with traditional approaches using a real CS area of Austin and a greenfield area of Bengaluru. For EVCSP, a different class of clustering solutions, i.e., mean-based, density-based, spectrum- or eigenvalues-based, and Gaussian distribution were evaluated. Different perspectives, such as the urban planner perspective, i.e., the clustering efficiency, and the EV owner perspective, i.e., an acceptable distance to the nearest CS, were considered. For the CS need estimation, ML solutions based on quadratic regression and simulations were evaluated. Using our CS planning methods urban planners can make better CS placement decisions and can estimate CS needs for the present and the future.