Comprehensive Optimization Model for Energy Hubs in Urban Distribution Networks, Considering Traffic Flow and Electric Vehicle Charging

This paper presents a comprehensive model for optimally planning electricity and gas distribution networks, integrating energy hubs (EHs) and electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. The goal of the model is to minimize total investment costs and decrease energy purchases from upstream networks. This is achieved by utilizing equipment such as combined heat and power (CHP) units, power-to-gas (P2G) systems, gas-fired (GF) units, wind turbines, and fast charging stations (FCS). The proposed framework models the flow of electricity, gas, and heat energy based on urban transportation traffic and employs the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for problem-solving. Different scenarios are designed to evaluate the impact of electrical and thermal loads, as well as the presence or absence of fast chargers in the network. Numerical results from a network consisting of 33 power distribution buses and 20 gas nodes indicate that implementing EHs and optimizing the combination of generation resources significantly reduces overall costs, enhances network stability, and decreases dependency on upstream networks. Furthermore, the third scenario, which simultaneously leverages thermal loads, fast chargers, and distributed generation resources, demonstrates superior economic, environmental, and technical performance compared to the other scenarios.