Solar-powered microgrid for electric vehicle applications: a conceptual solution and its control logic function

Several solutions to renewables dispatchability challenges are currently being proposed or employed such as storage and Demand Size Management. Also, electric vehicles represent a good opportunity to support renewables expansion thanks to the synergic possibility of offering a storage system and a demand management solution in connection with a control logic system. To this aim, this study investigates the feasibility to recharge electric vehicles, using solar energy from photovoltaic plants, into a “local microgrid” developed in a shopping centre parking area. In particular, an “integrated” control system will be proposed to manage simultaneous accesses to the electric charging stations for maximizing use of solar source (Microgrid module) and also evaluate impacts on microgrid stability (Powerflow module). The developed control logic, in particular, using deterministic model of queuing management, focuses the attention on computational simplicity to obtain a fast response system.