Optimal economic analysis of electric vehicle charging stations, renewable energy technologies, and capacitor banks in distribution networks

Abstract

The study optimizes the placement of electric vehicle charging stations (EVCSs), photovoltaic power plants (PVPPs), wind turbine power plants (WTPPs), battery energy storage system (BESS), and capacitor bank (CB), considering AC and DC chargers for the EVCSs by using the wave search algorithm (WSA), particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm, and salp swarm algorithm (SSA). The objective is to minimize the sum of the cost of electric energy supplied by the grid and the total costs from the added electric components for a 15-year project, including investment cost, operation, and maintenance (O&M) cost. Finally, WSA can reach a smaller total cost than others. The hybrid system with all the components costs 21.83% less than the base system for a 15-year project life cycle. The total revenue and investment and O&M costs are about $15.3 million and $11.3 million. So, the total profit is about $4 million, equivalent to 35.38%. Furthermore, the smallest voltage is increased from about 0.91 to 0.96 pu, and the highest branch current is reduced from about 387 to 329 A, meeting 45.54% of the total consumption in the system. Thus, the integration of the EVCSs, PVPPs, WTPPs, BESS, and CB into distribution power networks can bring a very high profit.