Electric Bus Charging Scheduling for a Bus Depot

Abstract

This paper investigates an electric bus (EB) charging scheduling problem for a bus depot to determine when to charge EBs, and how long each EB should be charged, aiming to minimize the total charging cost borne by the public transit (PT) operators by considering practical issues in EB operations such as the time-of-use tariffs and grid restrictions. We develop the problem as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model that can be solved by the optimization solvers. Furthermore, we also carried out a series of experiments based on real data from a bus depot in Taiyuan of China to demonstrate the efficiency of the developed MILP model. The developed MILP model may serve as a decision support tool for PT operators. In addition, some managerial insights are drawn to enhance the operating efficiency of the bus depot.