Energy management system for charging stations with regenerative supply and battery storage based on hybrid model predictive control

This paper introduces a comprehensive approach to smart charging at a charging station supported by a vanadium redox flow buffer battery and supplied by a photovoltaic panel. Both increasing photovoltaic power and fast charging of electric vehicles induce challenges for grid management. Smart charging in conjunction with the buffer battery increases efficiency and reduces strain on the grid. Improved yet simple models for vanadium redox flow batteries and the electric vehicle charging processes are are developed. The component models for control design are formulated as mixed logical dynamical system to accommodate the limitations of the charging process imposed by IEC 61851. From the models a hybrid model predictive control scheme is derived and evaluated in a test scenario.