Multicriteria power generation planning and experimental verification of hybrid renewable energy systems for fast electric vehicle charging stations.

The installation of fast electric vehicle charging stations (EVCS) will be essential to promote the acceptance by the users of electric vehicles (EVs). However, if EVCS are exclusively supplied by the grid, negative impacts on its stability together with possible CO 2 emission increases could be produced. Introduction of hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES) for EVCS can cope with both drawbacks by reducing the load on the grid and generating clean electricity. This paper develops a weighted multicriteria methodology to design the most suitable configuration of HRES for EVCS. This method determines the local renewable resources and the EVCS electricity demand. Then, taking into account environmental, economic and technical aspects, it deduces the most adequate HRES power generation planning for EVCS. Besides, an experimental stage to validate the design deduced from the multicriteria methodology is included. Therefore, the final power generation planning for the HRES in EVCS is supported not only by a complete numerical evaluation, but also by an experimental verification of the demand being fully covered. Methodology application to Valencia (Spain) proves that an off-grid HRES with solar PV, wind and batteries support would be the most suitable configuration for the system. This solution was also experimentally verified. • The paper presents a novel multicriteria methodology to design HRES for EVCS. • An experimental stage of the power balance and SOC is included in the methodology. • Valencia (Spain) is chosen as a case study due to its environmental policies. • The best configuration is an off-grid HRES with solar PV, wind resources and batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]