The PHEV Charging Infrastructure Planning (PCIP) Problem

Abstract

Increasing debates over a gasoline independent future and the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has led to a surge in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) being developed around the world. The majority of PHEV related research has been directed at improving engine and battery operations, studying future PHEV impacts on the grid, and projecting future PHEV charging infrastructure requirements. Due to the limited all-electric range of PHEVs, a daytime PHEV charging infrastructure will be required for most PHEV daily usage. In this paper, for the first time, we present a mixed integer mathematical programming model to solve the PHEV charging infrastructure planning (PCIP) problem for organizations with thousands of people working within a defined geographic location and parking lots well suited to charging station installations. Our case study, based on the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) campus, produced encouraging results, indicates the viability of the modeling approach and substantiates the importance of considering both employee convenience and appropriate grid connections in the PCIP problem.