A Numerical Estimate of the Investment Profitability in Developing a Network of Recharging Stations for Electrical Cars

A project of developing a set of charging stations for electric vehicles to be located along a segment of a highway crossing a geographic region is considered. A management company interested in developing (or hired to develop) such a project needs to estimate the size of the investment that is needed a) to buy and to install power stations at each charging station from the set, b) to provide all these power stations with electricity from a regional electrical grid (or from several regional electrical grids), and c) to provide the maintenance of the power stations. Both a mathematical model of a corresponding problem and a mathematical formulation of this problem as a nonlinear (maximin) one under linear constraints are presented. This problem turns out to be reducible (in the general case), to a mixed programming problem and to a linear programming one (for a simplified version of the model). An illustrative numerical example of the mathematical model, the problem formulation, and a review of key publications in the field are provided. Key words: charging station, electric vehicle, electrical grid, investment, linear constraints, maxmin, maintenance cost, power station