Determination of electric vehicle charging station locations via multi-criteria decision making methods

This study presents a new integrated methodology based on multi-criteria decision making methods, which evaluate simultaneously many conflicting criteria (cost and benefit type), in order to allocate electric vehicle charging stations to convenient locations. Firstly, it is aimed to determine the criteria that play a decisive role in location selection decisions for electric vehicle charging stations, and to obtain the importance weights of selected criteria. In this respect, eleven criteria based on three pillars of sustainability, namely; environment, economy and society have been defined. Environment criterion covers air pollutants reduction and waste discharge. Economy criterion consists of construction cost, annual operation and maintenance cost as well as investment pay-back period. The sub-criteria related to social criterion are as followed: Harmonization of electric vehicle charging stations with the development planning of urban road network, service capability, traffic convenience, location safety and security, capacity expansion in future, and adverse impact on people's lives. AHP method is used to prioritize the selected criteria. After that, Fuzzy PROMETHEE is preferred to evaluate alternative locations in terms of the construction of electric vehicle charging stations. PROMETHEE provides both partial and complete ranking of alternatives so that the evaluation results can be analyzed comprehensively. Therefore, PROMETHEE is an effective method for the location selection of electric vehicle charging stations. This study is also motivated to get more realistic results via using fuzzy numbers. The proposed methodology is implemented on a case study in order to determine optimal locations of electric vehicle charging stations in İstanbul, Turkey. Silivri, Esenler, Kadıköy, Beşiktaş, Kartal and Sarıyer, which are the set of alternatives, are investigated for the installation of electric vehicle charging stations. The results of this study depict that the social criterion has the highest importance on the location selection of electric vehicle charging stations. The social criterion is followed by the environmental and economic criteria respectively. When evaluated on the basis of sub-criteria, it is seen that air pollutants reduction has a crucial role in the location of electric vehicle charging stations. Another criterion that has high importance on the issue is investment pay-back period. When it comes to the alternative sites, Kadıköy is the most suitable area for establishing electric vehicle charging stations. Silivri is ranked last among the alternatives. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis is conducted to analyze changes in net flow values of alternatives by different criterion weights.