Optimal Placement of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in Distribution Networks using a Chaotic Equilibrium Optimization Algorithm

The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is rapidly growing in the transportation sector due to their significant advantages, including reduced greenhouse gas emissions, minimal maintenance requirements, and lower operational costs compared to traditional petroleum-based vehicles. As the EV population expands, the number of EV charging stations (EVCSs) is also increasing, which impacts parameters in distribution networks such as power loss and voltage profile. Therefore, the stability and reliability of distribution networks depend on the proper installation of EVCSs. This paper introduces the Equilibrium Optimization (EO) algorithm and its improved version, the Chaotic Equilibrium Optimization (CEO), for determining the optimal placement of EV charging stations (EVCSs) within distribution networks. The objective is to minimize the real power loss and installation costs. In addition, the study considers two scenarios: (1) without the Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) strategy, and (2) with the V2G strategy. The proposed algorithms are evaluated using the IEEE 34 distribution network. Comparative analysis with other optimization methods demonstrates the superior performance of the CEO algorithm, showing its efficacy in efficiently addressing the optimal EVCS placement problem.