2014 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution (CICED 2014)

Shenzhen, 23-26 Sep. 2014

Modeling and Simulation for Electric Taxi Charging/swapping Load

Oapeng

au

Guangzhou Power Supply Bureau, Guangzhou, China

1 3925096815@1 39.com
Zhaoxia JING,Liujia FANG,WenyanSHAO
School of Electric Power, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
zxjing@scutedu.cn

ABSTRACT

This paper propose s a met h o d f o r modeling

char g ing/swapping l oad distribution of electric
taxi considering th e taxi operation characteristic
and facility limitation. With this method, Monte
Carlo Method and Dijkstra Algorithm are adopted
to simulate the electric taxi' operation behavior. A
practical example is carried out to demonstrate the
performance of the modeling method.
Keywords:Electric taxi, Load modelling, Monte
Carlo

the traveling behavior such as passenger searching;

route choice, energy supply in detail In Section III,
Monte Carlo method and Dijkstra Algorithm are
applied to simulate the stochastic traveling behavior
of electric taxis according to traveling characteristics
analyzed in Section II. Section IV pr esents a
practical example based on the basic condition and
charging/battery facility planning of a certain district
in Guangzhou. The simulation results provide a
valuable reference for the facility planning.
TAXI OPERATION BEHAVIOR ANALYSES

INTRODUCTION

Electric taxi and its power supply facility's successful

operation are great driving force for the development
of EV not only because of its gr eat impact o n
energy conservation and emission reduction. Load
distribution is essential for the operation of charging
and swapping facility. Study on EV (electric vehicle)
load model is mainly focused on the modeling of
traveling behavior and load optimal distribution.
References [1, 2] record vehicle usage da ta,
separately build a stochastic model and a fuzzy-logic
inference system to predict EV charging profiles
considering driving cycles stamped, parking times
and SoC (state of charge). References [3-8] classify
EVs into different types according to different initial
charging SoC, daily charging time and energy supply
mode. And apply Monte Carlo Method to model the
impact of EV charging load to grid. Reference [9]
simulates power demand of EVs under the scenario
of uncontrolled domestic charging for 100 days using
Monte Carlo Method.
In conclusion of the existed study, most existing
research mainly concentrates on load model of
private EV or EVs as whole. In the modeling of
electric taxi load, they simply assum e its charging
time and SoC, ignoring practical situation. In fact,
there's distinct difference between electric taxi and
other electric vehicle as electric taxi's driving route,
charging time, initial state of charge(SoC) are more
random. Furthermore, modeling for electric taxi load
and its operation modes are much more complicate
because of its profit-seeking behavior and limit on
shift change.
This paper try to solve the problem discussed. The
structure is as follows: Section II firstly investigates

(CICED 2014 Session1)

Paper No.

Passenger Travelling Behaviour Analvsis

Electric taxi' operation behavior is depend on

passengers' traveling behavior .As referred in
literature[10-12], the traveling d emand varie s
according to population distribution, residents' travel
purpose , traffic condition and so on. This paper
divides a certain district into hot spot region with
large traveling demand, second hot spot region with
normal traveling demand and ordinary region with
small traveling demand according to the usage of
regions. Classification are listed in TABLEI.
Tablel Regiontype classification

Region
type

Land use

Probability
for traveling

A class of residential land,

Hot spot

Administrative office land,

region

Commercial and financial land,

High

Cultural and recreational land

B class of residential land,

Second hot

Administrative office land,

spot region Commercial and financial land,

Middle

Education and research land

Ordinary

C class of residential land,

region

Industrial land

Low

Taxi Operation Behaviour Analysis

Attendance rate of taxi is the percentage of taxis

carrying passengers. The fitting curve of Attendance
rate for hot spot region is shown as (1), second hot
spot region shown as (2) and ordinary region shown
as (3).The data is obtained from references[13].
(1)
(2)

(3)

CP1073

1 15

Page

11446

2014 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution (CICED 2014)

As for electrical taxis run in Guanghzou, 2 drivers run

one taxi, one drives from 4:00am -16:00 pm, and
the other drives form 16:00pm to 4:00am the other
day; the battery must be fulfilled at shift point.; when
the SoC (State of Charge) is between 10%-30%,
electrical taxi would run to stations. So each driver
need to charge/swap battery twice. Oneis during
operation and the other is before shift.
To make best profit, taxi driver's operation strategy is
as follows:
When carrying passengers, the driver would find a
shortest way to destination;
When carrying no passengers, he would run to
region with larger travelling demand [141;
Energy s u p p l y is not a l l owed when carrying
passengers;
When carrying no passengers, and SoC<30%,
electric taxis can run to stations for energy supply.
Facility Characteristics Analysis

For electric vehicle, there're 3 energy supply modes,

that is, battery swapping mode, fast charging mode
and slow charging mode. Since the electric taxi
operates for 24 hours, slow charging is not allowed
during the operation. So for elect ric taxi, fast
charging and battery swapping mode are applied.
Battery swapping usually costs Sminutes to
10minutes. For battery charging, we assume a
linear relationship between SoC and charging
time 0, similarly to [IS]. is the Rated capacity of
taxi's battery, is the rated voltage for charging,
and P is the charging power. is power angle. The
formula for charging time is as follow.
(4)

The apparent p ower of charging device can be

calculated as the following equation (5i161.

(S)

Where, is the charging efficiency, is the input power

factor of charging device and is the load rate of
distribution network. Here" and .
TAXI

LOAD SIMULATION

Applied Methods

Monte Carlo method

Monte Carlo method is used to implement random
si m u l a ti o n b ased on probability theory and
mathematical statistics [17]. In this paper, Monte Carlo
method take three variables into account,they are as
follows:
1)

2)

N(4,

The first run's time to. It follows normal

distribution
0.S2). So the second run's
time is to+12.
The probability of taxi need at one pointIts

(CICED 2014 Session1)

Paper No.

3)

Shenzhen,

23-26 Sep. 2014

distribution function is as (1)-(3) in different

type of region.
The destination during one running period.
hot spot region with a probability of SO%,
second hot spot region with a probability of
30% and ordinary region with a probability
of20%.

Dijkstra Algorithm

Dijkstra Algorithm is used to find the shortest route

[181 In this paper, it used
from one point to another
to find the shortest route from the start point to
destination point when carrying passengers and from
current point to the nearest station at low SoC.
Taxi Load Simulation without Facility Limited

24-hour traveling scena r io for each tax i is

performed. The simulation steps are as follows:

Initialize the transportation network and SoC of taxi.

Extract the first shift's time to. The simulation starts
at to.
Decide if there is taxi need at the current point.
Extract the probability of taxi need P_need and get
the attendance rate p of taxi at current point. IfP_
need> p, there's taxi need, go to step 4). If not,
there's no passenger ne ed, go to step 8).
Decide whether to carry passengers or to searching
for another passen ger. If SoC could cover the
consumption on the road, pick up passengers, go to
step 5).lf not, decline passengers, go to step 8).
Extract the destination and find the shortest route
from the start to destination.
Decide whether to go on running or go to stations for
shift. If there's enough time for shift, go to step 7). If
not, go to the appointed station for shift, go to step 9).
Decide whether to searching passengers or going
to station. If SoC30%, there's enough energy for
operation, go to step 2). If not, go to the nearest
station for energy supply, and SoC=100% Then go
to step 2).
Extract the destination during passenger searching
and find the shortest rout e to it. Each time taxi
comes across a transportation node, go to step 2).
Reserv e the battery charging/swapping time
and station node and decid e whether to end the
simulation. If this is th e first shift, go to 2). If this is
the second shift, end the simulation.
When all the taxis in this region have been simulated,
the arrived taxis and taxi load in each station can be
obtained from the reserved data.
Taxi Load Simulation with Facility Limited

In fact, there're limited facilities in each station

and sometimes taxis have to wai t for battery
charging/swapping. In this case, queuing time
will affect taxi load distribution.

CP1073

2/5

Page

/1447

2014 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution (CICED 2014)

Shenzhen, 23-26 Sep. 2014

Based on the taxi load distribution obtained

before, the amount of taxis in station during time
period t is calculated as follow:
Where,

(6)

is the amount of taxis not finishing

charginglbattery swapping in time period t- 1, is

the amount of taxis not starting charginglbattery
swapping in time period t- 1, is the amount of
taxis arrived in station dUling time period t.
Travel ing mi les as w ell as tra vel i ng t ime
decrease as queuing time. The decreased usage
of battery

can be calculated according to the

queuing time .

( 7)
Where, is the queuing time, v is the average
traveling speed, is the range on a charge.
will b e d educted in the battery charging/s wapping
next time. In this paper, queuing time has no effect
on the attendance rate of taxi, traveling route and
choice of station.
The simulation steps are as follows.

1)

Initialize the arrived taxis in each station and

taxi load distribution without facility limited
obtained before.

2)

Calculate the amount o f taxis

Figure.1 Transportation network

In the network, nodes are the passenger pickup

points and the stations' position. Links are the path
between nodes. This area has 108 nodes. The red
nodes stand for hot spot, the yellow nodes stand
for second spot, green nodes stand for ordinary
spot, and battery stand for station. Stations at node
105,107 are in hot spot region, 106 in second hot
spot region and 108 in ordinary region. 50 taxis are
appointed to shift in each station. There are 200 taxis
in this area and we assure that the taxis are BYD E6.
Simulation Result

limited

The Quantity o f Electric Taxi Reaching

Charging Statial

in stati on

tt 1&.. ,J
1

234

5 6 7 8 9101112131415161718192021222324
Ti-.e

DStIlUm 1(6

-Statim 106

charginglbattery swapping are put off to time

4)

Calculate the queuing time .and decreased

Ste.tiCI>

:-

"Iai .I
1

234

(;

89101112131415161718192021222324

Ti:.e

usage of battery. In next charging/swapping

Figure.3. Arrived tax s distribution in charging stations

time 1', .

5)

[)$tatim lOB

The Quantity of lectric Taxi Reaching Swapping

taxis a re last

period t+ 1.

DStllt1m 107

Figure.2. Arrived taxis distribution in charging stations

finish charging/battery swapping . taxis

considered to be serviced. Taxis not finished

without facility

3.

If the facility quanti ty, taxis are going to

are secondly considered and

Taxi Load

Th e simulation is performed for 200 electric taxis.

We assure that stations are all fast charging stations
or all battery swapping stations. The arrived taxis
distribution in fast charging stations and battery
swapping stations are shown in Figure 2 and Figure

dming period t.

3)

for

Decide whether to stop the simulation.If

t=24, stop the simulation. If not, go to step 2).

EXAMPLE
Example Data

The example is based on the sitting of battery

charging/swapping station in Huadu, Guangzhou. It
has an area of 700m2. The average travelling speed
is 30km/h. This paper divides this area into hot spot,
second hot spot and ordinary spot region according
to the population density, traveling characteristics,
urban layout, transportation condition and . The
transportation network is shown in Figure 1

We can see that, taxis need to recharge for 4 times

which results in peak time. The charging/swapping
time is during 0:00-2:00, 3:00-5:00, 12:00-14:00 and

(CICED 2014 Session1)

CP1073

Paper No.

: ------- " -- .

3/5

Page

11448

2014 China

International Conference on Electricity Distribution

Shenzhen, 23-26 Sep. 2014

(CICED 2014)

15:00-17:00. Different charging modes and regions

at 4 :00 and 16:00 during the shift time and load

lead to different peak time in stations. Peak time of

distribution is relatively uniform during other time

station 105 and station 107 in hot spot region are

for battery swapping. This is because the swapping

during the operation time while that of station 106 in

batter ie s are put on the battery box f o r slow

second hot spot region and station

108 in ordinary

region are during the shift time. Station 107 ranks

charging. Batteries swapped at

1 :00 and 13:00 are

not finished charging yet when the shift load are into

first by serving the most taxis daily, and station 105

charging. It results in the superposition of load. Also,

ranks second.

each taxi at least should be prepared with

This is because station 105 and station

107 are in

hot spot region, which has highest probability of

traveling demand and being a destination.
Taxi load of fast charging stations and battery
swapping stations are in Figure

Simulation Result for Taxi Load with facility

limited
We take station 105 as an example. There're 23
charging facilities in fast charging mode. There're 3

4 and Figure 5.

Load curve of Charging Station

10000.00 ,.,-------,

battery swapping facilities and enough battery box in

8000.00 r-m------,_--1
6000.00

battery swapping mode. The simulation results are

,..1-------/__------1

shown in Figure

()()(). 00
3000.00

O. 00 "-'-....--'--"'
...
'-'-'........
...
.dL.
..
....''''..
-''-'
-'
'-'-'-'-.......
0 1 2 J 5 7 8 91011 12IJI151.1718192t.121222J

Figure.4.

Ti.:

.StatiOtl 1Ofi. OSttiOt1 107

Load

Charging Facilities Li..ited

1\

f'\
I
r . f'l
J \ 1\
./'
'd k

! 2000.00

OSt.tlition lOS I

1500.00

1000.00

curve of charging stations

soo.oo
0.00

f---a------_-----1

0 1

1\ A
II I "
u \"

2:3 4 5 ti 1

I-withoot
Figure

3000.00

6.

s: '9 10 11 12 13 I'll 150 16 1? 18 19 20 '11 Z2 '23

fi

P"ilitiu limito!:d -Illi th P"ilhi Limto!:d

comparison
between station without and with facilities

1000.00

of

2S00.00

Load Curve of SW/lpping Station

6000.00 ,-------,
5000.00

6 and Figure 7.

Comparison
lSOO.OO

2000.00

I.Sttlition 105

3 battery

packets.

Charging load curve

Ccoivi.", of SlIOPl)illll facilities liaited

2t.IOO.00
1000.00

..
_'__"_....,._'_
.
......
O. 00 O<:.-_'_"....
o I 2 J ! 5 7 8 9 10 11121JlI 151017 181920212223
Ii_

IIIlSt.. i", 105 .S",ion 100 OS..tion 107

Figure.5.

Load

curve

of

OS",ion 108

battery swapping stations

According to the results, fast-charging facilities will

o

lead to greater impact to grid and higher demand

Since the power for fast charging device is

90kW,

2 J I 5 6

8 9 10 II 12 13 II IS I. 11 18 19 20 21 22 23

I -without f.,iliti lio.itod -with Facilities Limited I

for the distribution system than battery swapping

facilities.

Figure

7.

Swapping load curve comparison between station without and

with facilities limited

peak load in fast charging mode is 9600kW, which

The simulation results show that in fast-charging

16000kVA distribution network capacity. But

stations, the impact to the grid effectively decreases

requires

for battery swapping mode, batteries are charging

because of the limitation of facilities. As for the

on the battery box, which offers low power charging.

battery swapping stations, the charging load curve is

4993kW, which require 8000kVA

affected by the amount of battery swapping facilities

distribution network distribution, much less than that

and the average swapping time. The influence is not

in fast charging mode.

that obvious because of short swapping time.

So the peak load is

An d t her e's gr eat diffe r e n c e of ele c t r ic loa d

distribut io n be tween fou r stations. It's closely
related to different levels of traveling demand and
transportation network as analyzed before.
In fast charging mode, there are 4 load peak at 1 :00,
4:00,

12:00 and 16:00. Charging load at 1 :00 and

12:00 is relatively larger because they are during

the operation where SoC is between 10%-30%. For
charging load during shift time, SoC is about

40%,

so charging load is less than that of during operation

time.
In battery swapping mode, there are

(CICED 2014 Session1)

2 load peaks

CONCLUSIONS
Electr ic taxi has been pr omo ted at home a n d
abroad, playing a leading role i n energy conservation
and emission reduction. This p aper p rovides a
method to simulate taxis' random behavior and
builds load model of electric taxis. Based on the
real transportation network, the simulation method
takes passengers travelling behavior, taxi operation
characteristics, and f acility ch aracteristics into
account. The effectiveness of proposed model is

Paper No. CP1073

4/5

Page /1449

2014

verified.

China Intemational

Conference

on Electricity Distribution

We find that fast-charging facilities will lead

[11]

(CICED 2014)

Shenzhen, 23-26 Sep. 2014

JIA Ting, "The research of taxi dispatch method and

to greater impact to grid and higher demand for the

technologybased on the distribution and demand of

distribution system than battery swapping facilities.

passenger," M.S. thesis, Dept. Info. &Sig , CDUT,

The study

of this paper is helpful to the programming

of charging and battery swapping facilities.

[12]

Chengdu, Sichuan,2013.
TONG Xiaojun,"Analysis of residents' behavior
base d on the taxi GPS data," M.S. thesis, Dept.
Geosci&Info- Physics, CSU, Changsha, Hunan,

Acknowledgments
This material is based upon

work supported by the

[13]

National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant

taxi of Chengdu," M.S. thesis, Dept. Trans Eng"

No.51377058).

[14]
Ashtari A, Bibeau E, Shahidinejad S, et

[2]

on, vol.

data," Smart Grid, IEEE Transactions

Shahidinejad S,Filizadeh S and Bibeau E," Profile of

charging load on the grid due to plug-in vehicles,".

[3]

3(1),

pp.

135-141, 2012
LUO Zh uowei , HU Zechun, SONG Yongh ua,

et al. "Sudy on pl ug in ele ctric vehicles charging

load calculating," Automation and Electric Power

[4]

[15]

3(1), pp. 341-350,2012

Smart Grid, IEEE Transactions on, vol.

Systems, vol.

Bian Yang , Wang Wei and Lu Jian, "Equilibrium

Traffic and Transportation Engineering, vol.

al. "PEV

charging profile prediction and analysis based on

vehicle usage

.SJU,Chengdu,Sichuan,2009.
model of urban taxi service network," Journal of

REFERENCES

[1]

2012.
WANG Tan, "Demand analysis for passenger traffic

35, pp. 36-42,July 2011.

WANG Jian and Li ang Guihang, "Battery-quick

pp.

93-98., 2007

7(1),

HE Zhanyong, "Research on planning method and

operation mode of electric vehicle charging Station,"
M. S. thesis,Dept. Elect. Eng.,BJU,Beijing, 2012.

[16]

Technical Specification of Electric Vehicle Charging

[17]

Rubinstein R Y,and Kroese D P. Simulation and the

[18]

System,SZDB Std. Z29.0, 2010.

Monte Carlo method, Wiley & Sons,2011.
Rkiena S. "Dijkstra's Algorithm,". Implementing
Discrete Mathematics: Combinatorics and Graph
Theory with Mathematica, Reading, MA: Addison
Wesley, pp. 225-227,1990.

replacem e nt Operation Mode for Electric Taxi

Vehicle," Journal of Highway and Transportation

[5]

Research and Development, vol. 28(11),pp.1-4,2011

ZHONG Tongke, "A study on charging-discharging
of large-scale electric vehicles and their impact on
power grid," M.S. thesis, De pt. Elect. Eng.,SCUT,

[6]

Guangzhou,Guangdong,2012
JING Zhaoxia, ZHONG Tongke,LINZhilong, et

al.

"The impact of electric vehicles charging behavior

on the load curve of power grid," Southern Power

[7]

System Technology, vol. 7(1),pp. 80-84,2013

WANG Jian,WUKuihua,LlUZhizhen, et al. "Impact

of electric vehicle charging on distribution network

load and coordinated control," Electric Power

[8]

Automation Equipment, vol. 33(8),pp. 47-52, 2013

ZHANG Hongcai, HU Zechun, SONG Yonghua, et

al. "A prediction method for electric vehicle charging

load considering spatial and temporal distribution,"
Automation and Electric Power Systems, vol. 38(1),

[9]

pp. 13-20, 2014.

Lojowska A, Kurowicka D, Papaefthymiou G, et

al. "From transportation patterns to power demand:

Stochastic modelin g of uncontrolled domestic
charging of electric vehicles," 2011 IEEE.Power and
Energy Society General Meeting, Detroit Michigan,

[10]

pp. 1-7,July2011.
LIU Li na, CHEN Yanyan, and ZHANG Wenge,
"Passe n ger de mand forecast model for Be i jing
taxis," TRANSPORT ENGINEERING & SAFETY,
vol. 13,pp. 89-92.,2010.

(CICED 2014 Session1)

Paper No. CP1073

5/5

Page

11450