Fast-charging station deployment for battery electric bus systems considering electricity demand charges

Battery electric buses (BEBs) are considered a promising alternative for bus fleets to alleviate the growing environmental problems in urban areas, and fast-charging technology has been introduced to BEB systems to help electric buses provide uninterrupted service without the need to carry a large onboard battery. The general consensus is that fast-charging may lead to high electricity demand charges, thus compromising the competitiveness of electric bus systems. However, a majority of current electric bus fast-charging station deployment models ignore these charges. The present study addresses this gap by explicitly considering the electricity demand charges in the optimal deployment problem of fast-charging stations for battery electric bus systems. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer linear programming model with the objective of minimizing the total cost of vehicle batteries, fast-charging stations, energy storage systems, and electricity demand charges. Numerical studies based on a real-world bus network in Salt Lake City, Utah, are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. The results show that the proposed model can effectively determine the deployment of fast-charging stations, the design of vehicle battery sizes, as well as the installation of energy storage systems. This study demonstrates that energy storage systems are a potential remedy for high demand charges from fast-charging.