Electric vehicles (EVs) are envisaged to be the future transportation medium, and demonstrate energy efficiency levels much higher than conventional gasoline or diesel-based vehicles. However, the sustainability of EVs is only justified if the electricity used to charge these EVs is availed from a sustainable source of energy and not from any fossil fuel or carbon generating source. In this paper, the challenges of the EV charging stations are discussed while highlighting the growing use of distributed generators in the modern electrical grid system. The benefits of the adoption of photovoltaic (PV) sources along with battery storage devices are studied. A multiport converter is proposed for integrating the PV, charging docks, and energy storage device (ESD) with the grid system. In order to control the bidirectional flow between the generating sources and the loads, an intelligent energy management system is proposed by adapting particle swarm optimization for efficient switching between the sources. The proposed system is simulated using MATLAB/Simulink environment, and the results depicted fast switching between the sources and less switching time without obstructing the fast charging to the EVs.Energies 2019, 12, 2334 2 of 25 charging level. Additionally, voltage sags and high-power losses in an electrical grid system with a high penetration of level II charging are some of the challenges that are facing its widespread. Control and coordination in level II would reduce the negative impacts of level-II charging [5]; however, this requires an extensive communication system to be adopted.In general, both levels-I and II require single-phase power sources with onboard vehicle chargers. On the contrary, three-phase power systems are used with off-board chargers for level III fast charging rates (50-75 kW). The use of fast charging stations significantly reduces the EV charging time for a complete charging cycle. Additionally, widespread deployment of fast EV charging stations across the urban and the residential areas would eliminate the EV range anxiety concern [6,7]. However, the high-power charging rates are essential over a short interval of time for level-III charging impose a very high demand on the utility grid [8,9]. The current grid infrastructure is not capable of supporting the desired high charging rates of level-III. Thus, accomplishing fast charging rates while solely depending on the electrical grid does require not only the improvement of the charging system, but also the improvement of the electrical grid capacity. Additionally, drawing large amounts of current from the electrical grid will increase the utility charges especially at the peak hours and consequently will increase the system cost. The impact of an EV charging station load on electric grid systems is thoroughly discussed in Reference [10].A possible solutions to these challenges could be the installation of a distributed generator (DG) near the fast charging station site, as it generates electrical supply that is projected towards on-...