Optimal Placement of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in Distribution Networks Using Firefly Algorithm and Particle Swarm Optimization

The accelerating adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) has led to a growing need for the development of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations (EVCS). The increasing EV infrastructure impacts electrical distribution systems, strategic location placement required to minimize negative effects on the electrical grid. This study investigates the strategic placement of EVCS within the IEEE 33-bus distribution system, aiming to minimize active power losses while maintaining voltage limits. Two metaheuristic approaches, namely FA and PSO are utilized to solve this problem. Simulations were performed using MATLAB integrated with MATPOWER toolbox. The simulation result show both algorithms successfully identified EVCS locations yielding minimal active power losses with the value at 0.2053 MW. The PSO algorithm exhibited faster convergence. The average time required by PSO to complete the simulation process was 6.2 times faster than FA. FA showed better performance in minimizing power losses across the majority of trials. FA exhibited lower power loss values than PSO in 50 % of the comparative trials in the study. This study highlights the potential of both FA and PSO to optimize EVCS placement, contributing to efficient network operation and facilitating broader EV adoption.