The Grid Independence of an Electric Vehicle Charging Station with Solar and Storage

The UK government has set a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030. This will create a shift to electric vehicles. which will present a substantial impact on the grid. Therefore, methods to reduce the charging station’s impact on the grid have to be developed. This paper’s objective is to evaluate how integrating solar and storage affects a charging station’s dependence on the grid. A photovoltaic electric vehicle charging station (PVEVCS) is first designed, and then four charging profiles are selected to assess the station through a simulation using MATLAB. The array produces 3257 MWh/yr which, on average, offsets 40% of the electric vehicle (EV) load experienced by the station. Furthermore, with the integration of storage, the dependence is further reduced by 10% on average. The system also exported energy to the grid, offsetting close to all the energy imported.