Bilevel optimization approach to fast charging station planning in electrified transportation networks

Unplanned en-route charging of electric vehicles (EVs) can unexpectedly cripple traffic conditions. As less-effective location of fast charging station (FCS) may exacerbate this issue, the effects of FCS on EVs' charging behaviors should be incorporated at the system planning stage. This paper proposes a strategic-charging-behavior awared model in the context of electrified transportation network environment. This model is formulated into a bilevel mixed-integer programming problem. A newly designed network equilibrium model targets on the low-level problem, which is to model the drivers' charging reaction to a certain FCS layout. In considering the EV self-serving routing and charging behaviors as well as power network constraints, the upper-level problem is formulated for location and sizing decision-makings, of which the objective is to minimize the overall traffic time and investment cost. To handle the proposed bilevel problem, a descent algorithm is further developed. To examine the effectiveness of the proposed approach, extensive numerical experiments are conducted, through which the obtained results demonstrate that the EV charging demand can perfectly be met while traffic congestions can be alleviated to a great extent. •An augmented user equilibrium is introduced for EV traffic predicting.•A bilevel optimization model is designed for EV fast charging station location and sizing.•A descent solving algorithm is developed for tractable problem solving.