Characterization of Load Centers for Electric Vehicles Based on Simulation of Urban Vehicular Traffic Using Geo-Referenced Environments

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

It is interesting to look at EV charging station placement from a traffic flow perspective and the SUMO simulations seems relevent for this. I do however have several suggestions to improve the article.

Your  literature review includes a lot of discussions on EVs and infrastucture placement, which are not addressed in the research you present and seem less relevant, like impact on the electricity grid, use of renewables etc. In table 2 you summarize relevant literature, which is very interesting, however you do not disuss the table at all, please do so. I do not understand indicators in the colums like “assignment”.  Please also discuss how you use the results of the literature review.

I wonder which problem are you solving? Why charging stations, why not charge at home or at work? Please explain why this is not enough in the cases you investigate. Which type of EV driver are you accomodating with the solution you are designing?

You state : “The main problem to be solved is the need to find the optimal locations of charging centers, which in turn is induced to be the minimum number of stations in a given area that allows the autonomy of EV users, this is experimental research as it employs simulation techniques, so planning is a typical location problem.” Please elaborate how  autonomy is defined. And how you check your simulations on this parameter.

Provide some background on the case study, what is the situation in Rome (# and type EVs , average range, charging stations, way of charging for users) to have the reader informed on the context.

The EV market is a fast growing market of  new cars with bigger and bigger batteries and an average range of 150 km seems very low , since current average is more around 300km or even more. It is not clear to me from the research how a bigger range will influence the results, please disuss this. Range anxiety is less of a problem than a few years ago. Since on p.13 it is stated this is the most relevant parameter for this study I find it a flaw in the research not to discuss how it affects the results via for example a scenario study.  

In figure 11 you discuss distances to be traveled by the EVs and it would help if  the picture includes distances to give indication of scale on the map.

I miss a discussion and critical reflection on method and results.

Author Response

We are very grateful for your comments, which have been valuable to improving the publication.

We attach the changes made in the attached document.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

It is considered a study suitable for accurately identifying effective places where charging centers for electric vehicles (CCEV) will be deployed.
This study can be applied to the increasing trend of EV and charging station construction and charging station tracking, and I think it is suitable and original.
And, I think it has shown potential in achieving adequate autonomy by ensuring a nearby place where users can charge their vehicle.

Author Response

We are very grateful for your comments, which have been very valuable to improve the publication.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you for the additions and explanations. As to my questions on table 2 this has been sufficiently adressed. Also the location has been described in more detail, although I miss background on where currently charging stations are available.

 I also still miss discussion in the paper of the assumptions on user charging behavior and much higher range EVs have. I find it too simple to state that since not everybody has charged you would need the same amount of charging stations with 150 km average range verhicles as with a much higher range EVs nowadays have.   

Author Response

Reviewer # 2

 

Thank you for the additions and explanations. As to my questions on table 2 this has been sufficiently addressed. Also, the location has been described in more detail, although I miss background on where currently charging stations are available.

 I also still miss discussion in the paper of the assumptions on user charging behavior and much higher range EVs have. I find it too simple to state that since not everybody has charged you would need the same amount of charging stations with 150 km average range vehicles as with a much higher range EVs nowadays have. 

 

The answer has been included in the conclusions section.

 

Charging stations have not been massively deployed; in fact, the few that exist have been deployed in shopping malls or gas stations looking at empirical options or evidenced the direct route of connection between cities. In this sense, their impact on the power grid identifies a previous problem that must be solved and thus identify the best ways to minimize the impact on the power grid.

Cities with high traffic have identified the need to locate electric vehicle charging centers ideally. In this sense, although progress is being made every day in the charging autonomy of new electric vehicle models, it would be premature to consider that all users have homogeneous electric vehicles with high efficiency in the energy storage system. Consequently, the deployment of charging centers for electric vehicles is different concerning a gas station that was deployed based on market variables, capital gain, or other specifications.