Location planning of electric vehicle charging station with users’ preferences and waiting time: multi-objective bi-level programming model and HNSGA-II algorithm

Abstract

Interactive users’ preferences and waiting time together have great impact on charging station network design of electric vehicles (EVs), but only waiting time was considered in previous studies. To fill this research gap, this paper addresses a location planning problem for EV charging stations, which considers users’ preferences and waiting time simultaneously. The problem is formulated as a multi-objective bi-level programming model, the upper level model determines locations and capacity options of charging stations with the objectives of minimising total cost and minimising total service tardiness, and the lower level model determines the allocation of users to stations with the objective of minimising total travel time. A hybrid non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (HNSGA-II) with embedded level determination algorithm (LDA) and a partial enumeration algorithm (PEA) are proposed, respectively, to solve the model. Furthermore, managerial analysis is implemented to verify the advantages of considering users’ preferences in reducing charging service tardiness and saving cost compared with the mode of no considering users’ preferences. And sensitivity analysis is also performed to provide managerial insights for EV charging station location practice. Finally, a real-world case study is conducted to verify the applicability of the proposed approach in solving practical location planning problems.

KEYWORDS:

• Electric vehicles
• charging station location planning
• multi-objective bi-level optimisation
• users’ preferences
• waiting time
• hybrid non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor and the reviewers for the valuable comments, which greatly improved the quality of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [X H], upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Key Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71931009], and the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71901049].

Notes on contributors

Bo Zhang

Bo Zhang is a Ph.D. student in Management Science and Engineering at the School of Economics and Management, Dalian University of Technology in China. He received his B.E. degree in Industrial Engineering from Zhengzhou University and his M.Sc. degree in Management Science and Engineering from Dalian University of Technology, respectively. His research interests include network optimisation, online retailing and e-logistics management.

Meng Zhao

Meng Zhao is an Assistant Professor in the School of Economics and Management at Dalian University of Technology. He received his B.Sc. degree in Harbin Institute of Technology (2012) and carried out his Ph.D. studies at the School of Transportation Science and Engineering in Harbin Institute of Technology (2012-2018). After completing his Ph.D., he has worked as a post-doctoral fellow in the School of Economics and Management at Dalian University of Technology. His research mainly focuses on network modelling and combinatorial optimisation, shared mobility and e-logistics management.

Xiangpei Hu

Xiangpei Hu is a Professor of Management Science at the School of Economics and Management, Dalian University of Technology in China. He received his B.Sc. (1983), M.Sc. (1987) and Ph.D. (1996) degrees from Harbin Institute of Technology, China, respectively. He obtained the National Distinguished Young Scholars Award from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). He has been selected as the Chang-jiang Scholars Distinguished Professor of Ministry of Education (MOE) of China, the New Century Excellent Talent of MOE of China and the Life Fellow of International Society of Management Engineers. He served as a member of the management Science and Engineering Group of the sixth and seventh Discipline Appraisal Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of The State Council in China. Currently, he serves on the editorial boards of five academic journals. He is also a visiting professor at Harbin Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University and Hefei University of Technology. His research and teaching interests include E-commerce, Supply Chain and Logistics Management, Intelligent Operations Research and the Real-time Optimisation Control for Dynamic Systems. He has published over 200 scholarly papers in reputable journals. His research has been supported by a number of national grants, including the Innovation Team Project of MOE and the Innovation Research Groups of NSFC.