Performance evaluation of a multi-standard fast charging station for electric vehicles

Abstract

Electric vehicles (EVs) have been considered as a feasible solution to deal with the high fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions caused by conventional vehicles. However, long charging times and drivers' range anxiety are the main disadvantages of EVs. A key factor that is expected to mitigate these problems and facilitate the wide adoption of EVs will be the effective operation of fast charging stations (FCSs). In this paper, the operation of a FCS is evaluated, in terms of operator's profits and customers' waiting time in the queue. The FCS contains both dc and ac outlets that provide high power levels, while the various EV models are classified by their battery size and the fast charging option they use (dc or ac). The operator's daily profits and the queue waiting time are initially computed by considering that the EVs recharge under a flat-rate pricing policy. In order to avoid a long queue build-up at the FCS, a new pricing policy is then proposed. The intuition behind the scheduled pricing policy is that users are deterred to charge more than an arranged energy threshold, thus reducing the load and the waiting time at the FCS.