A two-layer planning method for location and capacity determination of public electric vehicle charging stations

The planning of public charging stations is crucial for the growth of electric vehicles (EVs). To improve the accuracy of predicting EV charging demand in urban areas, we propose a charging decision-making model based on fuzzy logic. Meanwhile, the influence of private charging piles is considered to further enhance the accuracy of predicting public charging demand. To address the issue of optimization algorithms easily getting stuck in local optima due to the vast quantity of variables involved in the location and capacity planning process, this paper introduces a two-layer planning method. In specific, the upper-level location model optimizes the locations of charging stations, while the lower-layer capacity model determines the number of charging piles within each station, leading to a reduction in the number of variables for each layer. Moreover, through iterative exchange results between the upper-layer location model and lower-layer capacity model, the optimal solution can be attained. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method can simultaneously consider the perspectives of both EV drivers and charging station investors, while also enhancing the utilization rates of public charging piles.