  The placement of charging stations in areas with developing charging
infrastructure is a critical component of the future success of electric
vehicles (EVs). In Albany County in New York, the expected rise in the EV
population requires additional charging stations to maintain a sufficient level
of efficiency across the charging infrastructure. A novel application of
Reinforcement Learning (RL) is able to find optimal locations for new charging
stations given the predicted charging demand and current charging locations.
The most important factors that influence charging demand prediction include
the conterminous traffic density, EV registrations, and proximity to certain
types of public buildings. The proposed RL framework can be refined and applied
to cities across the world to optimize charging station placement.
