Enhancing Electric Bus Charging Scheduling: An Energy-Integrated Dynamic Bus Replacement Strategy with Time-of-Use Pricing

Yang Liu, Bing Zeng, Kejun Long () and Wei Wu
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Yang Liu: Hunan Key Laboratory of Smart Roadway and Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure Systems, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha 410114, China
Bing Zeng: Hunan Key Laboratory of Smart Roadway and Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure Systems, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha 410114, China
Kejun Long: Hunan Key Laboratory of Smart Roadway and Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure Systems, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha 410114, China
Wei Wu: School of Transportation Engineering, Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing 400074, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 8, 1-19

Abstract: Existing studies on electric bus (EB) scheduling mainly focus on the arrangement of bus charging at the bus terminals, which may lead to inflexible charging plans, high scheduling costs, and low utilization of electricity energy. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a dynamic bus replacement strategy. When the power of an in-service EB is insufficient, a standby EB stationed at nearby charging stations is dispatched in advance to replace this in-service EB at a designated bus stop. Passengers then transfer to the standby bus to complete their journey. The replaced bus proceeds to the charging station and transitions into a “standby bus” status after recharging. A mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model is established to determine the dispatching plan for both standby and in-service EBs while also designing optimal charging schemes (i.e., the charging time, location, and the amount of charged power) for electric bus systems. Additionally, this study also incorporates the strategy of time-of-use electricity prices to mitigate the adverse impact on the power grid. The proposed model is linearized to the mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model and efficiently solved by commercial solvers (e.g., GUROBI). The case study demonstrates that EBs with different energy levels can be dynamically assigned to different bus lines using bus replacement strategies, resulting in reduced electricity costs for EB systems without compromising on scheduling efficiency.

Keywords: bus replacement; bus charging scheduling; time-of-use electricity policy; electricity energy allocation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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