The development of charging stations for electric vehicles: a solution or a problem?

Trends in automotive industry support global goals of reducing greenhouse gases and increasing overall energy efficiency. Increased use of electric vehicles (EVs) has to be supported with adequate charging infrastructure. This paper presents a plan of technical solutions and design approach of charging stations, with some particular solutions of existing public charging stations, as well as the description of the situation in Croatia, compared with other countries. A special attention is paid to the development of a charging system as a distributed source of electrical energy. Simultaneous recharging of the large number of EVs will have a significant impact on the power system operation, such as generation capacity, transformer loading levels, and load profiles. There is a growing need for widely distributed publicly accessible charging stations, some of which support faster charging at higher voltages and currents. The optimization of the time and the place of charging are also investigated. Using a combination of standardized protocols and wide-area communication technologies, all the charging points can be connected in an intelligent network that provides valuable real-time information about the charging station, which results in higher reliability and stability of the power system.