Planning of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations for Four Wheeled Passenger Vehicles in Guwahati: An Approach through Genetic Algorithm

Strategically designing and placing electric car charging stations helps urban customers accept electric vehicles as their main form of transportation. However, policy economics, charging demand, user comfort, and road traffic circumstances affect the position and setup of these electric car charging stations. This study presents a charging station placement and capacity optimization methodology. The goal is to increase operator income and reduce user billing costs. In addition, the road time-consuming index is used to analyze the effect of road congestion on the user’s extra charging expenditures, improving user satisfaction. A modified non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is used to construct charging stations with varied constraints in this study. The paper identifies Guwahati’s urban road network charging station locations and sizes for 2030 electric car charging needs.

I. Introduction

Due to climate change, greener transportation is needed more and more. Researchers are investing their energies to devise strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation industry, one of the greatest polluters. In this view, electric cars are the cleanest, non-emission means of transport. Electric vehicles (EV) as the main mode of transportation are important to meeting zero-emission objectives set by governments worldwide, including India. Despite government attempts, EV adoption has been slow. High capital cost, range, and charge anxiety are the main reasons for poor adoption. Proper planning for electric car charging stations considering road conditions helps reduce charge anxiety. Quick charging stations will accelerate EV adoption and help achieve climate targets set by various governments. However, the absence of charging infrastructure and low electric vehicle population offers a classic “chicken and egg” conundrum. Planning ahead and estimating the capacity and size of electric car charging stations based on projected EV charging demand helps solve this challenge.