Despite the rapid expansion of photovoltaic (PV) installations over the past decade, challenges such as curtailments of renewable energy sources (RESs) and grid constraints continue to limit the capacity of Cyprus’ power system to accommodate higher solar penetration. In this context, grid reliability, defined as the ability to maintain stable operation by balancing supply and demand, minimizing curtailment, and reducing stress on the island network, has emerged as a critical concern. The deployment of PV-plus-storage systems offers a viable solution to enhance grid reliability while alleviating operational constraints. This paper presents a real-world case study of the first commercially deployed grid-connected PV-powered, battery-integrated electric vehicle (EV) charging station in Cyprus. Commissioned in May 2025, the system integrates a 60.32 kWp rooftop PV array, a 100 kW/97 kWh battery energy storage system (BESS), and a 160 kW DC fast charger. A custom cloud-based energy management platform enables real-time monitoring, forecasting, and optimization under a zero-export scheme. High-resolution operational and weather data were collected between 15 May and 30 November 2025. Over this period, the integrated PV-battery system supplied 29% of the site’s total energy demand (self-sufficiency rate of 28.97%) and achieved a self-consumption rate of 98.69%. Such rates would not have been attainable with a pure PV system, given the depot’s evening-concentrated EV charging demand profile, which requires the BESS to time-shift daytime solar generation. The system reduced depot electricity costs by approximately 29%, generating €16,010 in savings and avoiding 26.47 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions compared to a grid-only baseline. Beyond site-level performance, the system contributed to grid stress reduction by absorbing excess PV generation that would otherwise have been curtailed/wasted. Operational insights indicate minimal temperature-related issues, highlight the importance of automated fault detection and alerting to minimize downtime, and demonstrate how periodic operation strategies can optimize system performance and mitigate curtailment in Cyprus’s isolated grid.
Livera et al. (Sat,) studied this question.
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