Electric bus scheduling and optimal charging

Abstract

In this paper, we study an operational problem of optimizing the deployment of electric buses in an urban public transport service. We propose a modeling aimed at optimizing the assignment of buses to line services of a public transport network, then the allocation of parking places to buses taking into account the typology of depots and finally the optimization of bus charging while complying with technical constraints. The model is based and tested on a concrete case study of a public transport company. The results show that optimization models can address the weaknesses of electric buses, namely limited range and long charging times, and thus provide public transport organizations with bus use strategies and bus charging policies.