Performance Analysis of Photovoltaic-Grid Connected System for Electric Vehicle Charging

Solar energy is one of the main renewable energy sources used as an alternative source throughout the world. A number of researches have been carried out to harness solar energy efficiently and effectively. The one major application of solar energy is charging of electric vehicles. The carbon emissions from internal combustion engines (ICE) of vehicles have necessitated shifting to an alternate source of transportation. Electric Vehicles (EV) being a clean alternative is an ideal candidate for transportation. These EVs when charged through an AC grid generate harmonics that are inserted into the grid resulting in various problems like power shortages, voltage sags, etc. In this work, a practical model has been designed with four charging stations, each serving eight electric vehicles at a time. The power generated from the PV module will be continuously measured and the shift between PV and grid will take place by supervisory control. The battery of EVs considered has the same specifications as that are used in real-life batteries of EVs. The analysis is done regarding the effect of different internal resistances, different state of charge, total harmonic distortion (THD) and scheduling of PV-grid system. It is observed that THD is drastically dropped in terms of voltage and current distortions when charged on ac grid alone. The results reveal that the proposed PV-Grid connected system is quite effective to boost the solar energy and can be practically implemented.