An Efficient Energy Management Approach for a Solar-Powered EV Battery Charging Facility to Support Distribution Grids

Abstract

The home photovoltaic (HPV) system integrated with energy storages can supply power to the distribution grid which may be reliable and free from HPV intermittency effects. However, this is always associated with the high cost of energy storages. On the other hand, the growth of electric vehicles (EVs) in the market has a potential to place the distribution grid in a high risk as the EV owners may charge the EV battery on demand which may cause an unexpected increase in the evening and power quality problems. This article proposes an efficient energy management approach for the HPV systems to power the electric vehicle battery (EVB) charging facility while utilizing the EVB as an energy storage system (ESS) that can mitigate the HPV impacts and allow the growth of HPV systems in power grids. This research is aimed for EVs that are compatible with the dc fast charging CHAdeMO standard. The operation strategy of the HPV-EVB charging system is designed in such a way that the EVB is charged efficiently either by the HPV or by the distribution grid. The proposed energy management strategy will help reduce the unexpected peak power demand, and can help in the implementation of the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) to improve the stability of the grid during peak load. In addition, the EVB can provide power to the critical loads in the home when there is a loss of power supply from the grid. In the proposed system, the HPV, the grid, and the EVB converters share a common dc bus. Both simulation and experimental results show that the proposed energy management of the HPV-EVB system can reduce the impacts of the high penetration of EVs and HPVs on power distribution grids and can effectively improve the self-consumption of the HPV systems.