MPC-Based Centralised Power Control in EV Charging Station with Battery Storage System and PV Coordination

This work presents a study on the optimal control of an electric vehicle (EV) charging station, with a dual objective of minimizing operational expenses and accommodating EV owner preferences. The control frame work employs Model Predictive Control (MPC) to efficiently distribute power among the stations components, encompassing photovoltaic panel (PV), and energy storage system (ESS) battery, the grid connection, and connected EVs. Our MPC scheme takes into account EV owner requirements, with owners providing information about their charging needs (required energy) and departure times when plugging in their vehicles. With this extra information that helps energy management of the system, we exploited the integration of Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology, enabling bidirectional power flow to and from grid. This feature allows EV s to supply electricity to the grid during periods of high demand or when solar energy generation is insufficient. The proposed MPC-based method is validated through simulation and compared with heuristic method that disregards owner information and tends to charge EV at maximum power rate available. This comparative analysis serves to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed approach in terms of cost savings, good energy management, and owner satisfaction.