An Optimal Operation Model and Ordered Charging/Discharging Strategy for Battery Swapping Stations

The economic operation of battery swapping stations (BSSs) is significant for the promotion of large-scale electric vehicles. This paper develops a linear programming model to maximize the daily operation profits of a BSS by considering constraints of the battery swapping demand of users and the charging/discharging balance of batteries in the BSS. Based on the BSS configuration and data from electric taxis in Beijing, we simulate the operation situation and charging/discharging load of the BSS in nine scenarios with two ordered charging and discharging strategies. The simulation results demonstrate that the model can achieve the maximum daily profits of the BSS. According to the sensitivity analysis, the battery swapping price for batteries is the most sensitive, followed by the number of batteries in the BSS, while the operation-maintenance costs and battery depreciation costs are least sensitive. In addition, the charging and discharging of batteries in the BSS can be coordinated by increasing the battery quantity of the BSS and formulating the ladder-type battery swapping price.