Location Planning of Charging Stations for Electric Buses in Public Transport Considering Vehicle Scheduling: A Variable Neighborhood Search Based Approach

Many public transport companies have recently launched projects testing the operation of electric buses. Progressively, traditional combustion engine buses are being replaced by electric buses. In such cases, some stops on bus lines are equipped with charging technology. Combustion engine buses can...

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Main Authors: Nils Olsen, Natalia Kliewer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-04-01
Series:Applied Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/8/3855
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author Nils Olsen
Natalia Kliewer
author_facet Nils Olsen
Natalia Kliewer
author_sort Nils Olsen
collection DOAJ
description Many public transport companies have recently launched projects testing the operation of electric buses. Progressively, traditional combustion engine buses are being replaced by electric buses. In such cases, some stops on bus lines are equipped with charging technology. Combustion engine buses can operate for an entire day without having to refuel. By contrast, electric buses have considerably shorter ranges and need to recharge their batteries throughout a day. For cost-efficient use of electric buses, charging stations must be located within the road network so that required deadhead trips are as short as possible, but attention must also be paid to construction costs. In contrast to vehicle scheduling, which is a more short-term planning task of public transport companies, location planning of charging stations is a long-term planning problem and requires a simultaneous solving of both optimization problems. Specifically, location planning and vehicle scheduling have to be considered simultaneously in order to open up optimization potentials by comparison to sequential planning, since locations of charging stations directly influence the resulting vehicle rotations. To this purpose, we present a novel solution method for the simultaneous optimization of location planning of charging stations and vehicle scheduling for electric buses in public transport, using variable neighborhood search. By a computational study using real-world public transport data, we show that a simultaneous consideration of both problems is necessary because sequential planning generally leads to either infeasible vehicle rotations or to significant increases in costs. This is especially relevant for public transport companies that start operating electric bus fleets.
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spelling doaj.art-a0c401662fcb4d748c7637468970885c2023-12-01T00:40:11ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172022-04-01128385510.3390/app12083855Location Planning of Charging Stations for Electric Buses in Public Transport Considering Vehicle Scheduling: A Variable Neighborhood Search Based ApproachNils Olsen0Natalia Kliewer1Department of Information Systems, Freie Universität Berlin, Garystr. 21, 14195 Berlin, GermanyDepartment of Information Systems, Freie Universität Berlin, Garystr. 21, 14195 Berlin, GermanyMany public transport companies have recently launched projects testing the operation of electric buses. Progressively, traditional combustion engine buses are being replaced by electric buses. In such cases, some stops on bus lines are equipped with charging technology. Combustion engine buses can operate for an entire day without having to refuel. By contrast, electric buses have considerably shorter ranges and need to recharge their batteries throughout a day. For cost-efficient use of electric buses, charging stations must be located within the road network so that required deadhead trips are as short as possible, but attention must also be paid to construction costs. In contrast to vehicle scheduling, which is a more short-term planning task of public transport companies, location planning of charging stations is a long-term planning problem and requires a simultaneous solving of both optimization problems. Specifically, location planning and vehicle scheduling have to be considered simultaneously in order to open up optimization potentials by comparison to sequential planning, since locations of charging stations directly influence the resulting vehicle rotations. To this purpose, we present a novel solution method for the simultaneous optimization of location planning of charging stations and vehicle scheduling for electric buses in public transport, using variable neighborhood search. By a computational study using real-world public transport data, we show that a simultaneous consideration of both problems is necessary because sequential planning generally leads to either infeasible vehicle rotations or to significant increases in costs. This is especially relevant for public transport companies that start operating electric bus fleets.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/8/3855location planningvehicle schedulingelectric busescharging stationspartial charging
spellingShingle Nils Olsen
Natalia Kliewer
Location Planning of Charging Stations for Electric Buses in Public Transport Considering Vehicle Scheduling: A Variable Neighborhood Search Based Approach
Applied Sciences
location planning
vehicle scheduling
electric buses
charging stations
partial charging
title Location Planning of Charging Stations for Electric Buses in Public Transport Considering Vehicle Scheduling: A Variable Neighborhood Search Based Approach
title_full Location Planning of Charging Stations for Electric Buses in Public Transport Considering Vehicle Scheduling: A Variable Neighborhood Search Based Approach
title_fullStr Location Planning of Charging Stations for Electric Buses in Public Transport Considering Vehicle Scheduling: A Variable Neighborhood Search Based Approach
title_full_unstemmed Location Planning of Charging Stations for Electric Buses in Public Transport Considering Vehicle Scheduling: A Variable Neighborhood Search Based Approach
title_short Location Planning of Charging Stations for Electric Buses in Public Transport Considering Vehicle Scheduling: A Variable Neighborhood Search Based Approach
title_sort location planning of charging stations for electric buses in public transport considering vehicle scheduling a variable neighborhood search based approach
topic location planning
vehicle scheduling
electric buses
charging stations
partial charging
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/8/3855
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AT nataliakliewer locationplanningofchargingstationsforelectricbusesinpublictransportconsideringvehicleschedulingavariableneighborhoodsearchbasedapproach