The penetration of battery electric vehicles is increasing. Due to their ability to store electrical power and to shift charging events, they offer a wide range of opportunities with regard to renewable grid integration and lowering the overall CO2 emissions. This is particularly evident for isolated microgrids, such as the Portuguese island of Porto Santo. In this paper, we conduct a data analysis of real-world charging data of 20 electric vehicles operated on the island of Porto Santo. We provide insights into the charging behavior of different users and analyze the opportunity of smart charging for better renewable grid integration using linear optimization models. The data analysis shows that drivers prefer home rather than publicly available charging stations, flexible charging events occur mostly overnight and the charging flexibility of the fleet decreases over the project duration. With regard to make charging more flexible, we can see that smart charging can help to raise the share of electricity generated by renewable energy sources for charging the electric vehicles to up to 33%.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.