Page - 179 - in Emerging Technologies for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

energies Article OptimalSitingofChargingStationsforElectric VehiclesBasedonFuzzyDelphiandHybrid Multi-CriteriaDecisionMakingApproachesfroman ExtendedSustainabilityPerspective HuiruZhao1 andNanaLi1,2,* 1 SchoolofEconomicsandManagement,NorthChinaElectricPowerUniversity,Beijing102206,China; huiruzhao@163.com 2 SchoolofNaturalResourcesandEnvironment,UniversityofMichigan,AnnArbor,MI48108-1041,USA * Correspondence: nancyli1007@163.comor lnana@umich.edu;Tel.:+86-178-8884-0018or+1-734-709-2069 AcademicEditor:MichaelGerardPecht Received: 25 January2016;Accepted: 22March2016;Published: 6April2016 Abstract:Optimal sitingof electricvehicle charging stations (EVCSs) is crucial to the sustainable developmentofelectricvehiclesystems.Consideringthedefectsofpreviousheuristicoptimization models in tacklingsubjective factors, thispaperemploysamulti-criteriadecision-making(MCDM) frameworktoaddresstheissueofEVCSsiting. Theinitialcriteria foroptimalEVCSsitingareselected fromextendedsustainability theory,andthevitalsub-criteriaarefurtherdeterminedbyusingafuzzy Delphimethod(FDM),whichconsistsof fourpillars: economy,society, environmentandtechnology perspectives. To tolerate vagueness andambiguity of subjective factors andhuman judgment, a fuzzyGreyrelationanalysis (GRA)-VIKORmethodisemployedtodetermine theoptimalEVCSsite, whichalso improves theconventionalaggregatingfunctionof fuzzyVlsekriterijumskaOptimizacijia IKompromisnoResenje (VIKOR).Moreover, to integrate thesubjectiveopinionsaswellasobjective information,experts’ ratingsandShannonentropymethodareemployedtodeterminecombination weights. Then, the applicability of proposed framework is demonstrated by an empirical study offiveEVCS site alternatives inTianjin. The results show thatA3 is selected as the optimal site forEVCS, and sub-criteria affiliatedwith environment obtainmuchmore attentions than that of other sub-criteria. Moreover, sensitivity analysis indicates the selection results remains stableno matter howsub-criteriaweights are changed,which verifies the robustness and effectiveness of proposedmodelandevaluationresults. This studyprovidesacomprehensiveandeffectivemethod foroptimalsitingofEVCSandalso innovates theweightsdeterminationanddistancecalculation for conventional fuzzyVIKOR. Keywords: electric vehicle charging station; optimal siting; fuzzyDelphimethod; combination weights; fuzzyGreyrelationanalysis-VlsekriterijumskaOptimizacijia IKompromisnoResenje (fuzzy GRA-VIKOR); sustainability; sensitivityanalysis 1. Introduction Withtherapideconomicdevelopmentanddepletionofnatural resources, energyshortagesand climatechangehavebecomesevereissuesforthesustainabledevelopmentof thepresentworld.China, as the largestgreenhousegas (GHG)emitterandenergyconsumer,hasproposedthecorresponding strategies for energyutilization. Inpast a fewyears, urbanizationdevelopment andanexplosive demandforautomobileshavestimulatedanincrease inenergyconsumptionandcarbonemissions in the transportationsector. TheChinese transportationsectoraccountedforabout21%of the total nationalenergyconsumption,aswellas7%ofChina’sgrosscarbonemissions [1]. Electricvehicles Energies 2016,9, 270;doi:10.3390/en9040270 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies179