Bidirectional Charging for BEVs with Reconfigurable Battery Systems via a Grid-Parallel Proportional-Resonant Controller

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Several suggestions are as follows.

 1.     There are many typos in the text. Please carefully check. For example, Abstract; row 7 (measurments) which is missing e

2- It is necessary to clearly mention how this article differs from similar review papers and what are its strengths compared to others?

3-In the introduction the authors should explain such as, some references were used bidirectional converter charging of Battery Electric Vehicles. This article is different because we used.......... 

Or they should say, in recent years, the development of bidirectional converters for charging Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) has gained significant attention. While previous studies have focused on the technical aspects of bidirectional converters, this article aims to.................. 

Also, the advantage in this article is ...... however the problem in this article is.......  (If there is any issues) 

4- The article needs more to be described the technical basics of how the authors utilize the theorem of BESS.

5- The authors need to introduce more research about the advantages and disadvantages about BESS. Also, the battery sizing.

 6- Pag8: row 251, you described the state of charge (SOC), explain more how the SOC is important for the lifespan of the battery and what is the percentage of SOC to increase the battery lifetime. These references are maybe helpful for you Mix-mode energy management strategy and battery sizing for economic operation of grid-tied microgrid. Energy Management of a Battery Combined with PV Generation DOI: 10.1109/NAPS46351.2019.9000314. 

7-Add one section discussing the modeling and parameters of BESS.

8-The conclusion needs simplification and is understandable for the reader.

9-Most of the references are old, use new references and compare the method with new published paper

non

Author Response

Several suggestions are as follows.

1-There are many typos in the text. Please carefully check. For example, Abstract; row 7 (measurments) which is missing e
A: Thank you for your attentive revision of the paper. We had a professional language editor proof-read the article and tried to correct all issues.

2- It is necessary to clearly mention how this article differs from similar review papers and what are its strengths compared to others?

A: We tried to include more references on this topic and described the differences more thoroughly within the Abstract and Introduction.

3-In the introduction the authors should explain such as, some references were used bidirectional converter charging of Battery Electric Vehicles. This article is different because we used.......... 

Or they should say, in recent years, the development of bidirectional converters for charging Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) has gained significant attention. While previous studies have focused on the technical aspects of bidirectional converters, this article aims to.................. 

Also, the advantage in this article is ...... however the problem in this article is.......  (If there is any issues) 
A: Thank you for this detailed comment. We included an explanation of the differences between our paper and previous studies into the introduction. We hope that this will make the scope of our article clearer to the reader.

4- The article needs more to be described the technical basics of how the authors utilize the theorem of BESS.
A: Thank you for this suggestion. We tried to describe the BESS as thorough as possible, while focusing on the paper’s main subject, which is the power electronics and the control algorithm. We feel that all system components are described sufficiently and the attentive reader should be able to repeat all findings.

5- The authors need to introduce more research about the advantages and disadvantages about BESS. Also, the battery sizing.
A: This paper gives in-depth insights into an RBS that is controlled in a grid-parallel operation without a dedicated power electronics component. Since it is a system that is intended for usage within a BEV, we focused on the advantages within the vehicle context. The exact battery size of the used system is given in Section 3.1. However, the paper focuses on the power electronics and control algorithm rather than the battery cells.

 6- Pag8: row 251, you described the state of charge (SOC), explain more how the SOC is important for the lifespan of the battery and what is the percentage of SOC to increase the battery lifetime. These references are maybe helpful for you Mix-mode energy management strategy and battery sizing for economic operation of grid-tied microgrid. Energy Management of a Battery Combined with PV Generation DOI: 10.1109/NAPS46351.2019.9000314.
A: Thank you for this suggestion. We added the mentioned papers to our references and described the importance of SoC balancing on battery lifetime.

7-Add one section discussing the modeling and parameters of BESS.
A: The Paper focuses mainly on the control algorithm and its implementation, while the BESS modeling is only a minor part within the manuscript. The BESS modeling and parameters are described in Section 3, especially in 3.1. The description should sufficiently describe our approach and the reader should be able to repeat our work with the information given in this section.

8-The conclusion needs simplification and is understandable for the reader.
A: Thank you for this comment. We condensed the conclusions accordingly and tried to make them easier to understand while still providing the major outcomes.

9-Most of the references are old, use new references and compare the method with new published paper
A: We added some more recent papers and compared our work with the references. Most of our references are less than 5 years old. All older references were chosen in order to refer to the original works. Finally, we added a paragraph into the discussion where we compare our findings with other recent publications.

Reviewer 2 Report

The submitted manuscript describes a new approach of bidirectional charging utilizing multilevel inverter (MLI) systems. The paper is well written, the Authors clearly state the focus of their reseach. The simulation and experimental sections are rather interesting. Here are some comments:

- It is strongly advised to add a subsection of the Introduction describing the advantages (and disadvantages) of the proposed approach with respect to the existing literature.

- Which MATLAB/Simulink toolbox was used to perform the simulation? Simscape, SimPowerSystems or the model was based on the linear differential equations describing the system?

Author Response

The submitted manuscript describes a new approach of bidirectional charging utilizing multilevel inverter (MLI) systems. The paper is well written, the Authors clearly state the focus of their reseach. The simulation and experimental sections are rather interesting. Here are some comments:

- It is strongly advised to add a subsection of the Introduction describing the advantages (and disadvantages) of the proposed approach with respect to the existing literature.
A: Thank you for this suggestion. We added additional information about existing literature in the introduction. A comparison of our paper to previous works is now included.

- Which MATLAB/Simulink toolbox was used to perform the simulation? Simscape, SimPowerSystems or the model was based on the linear differential equations describing the system?
A: We used the Simscape > Electrical > Specialized Power Systems Toolbox to simulate the electric circuit. For the Controller, we partly used the Control System Toolbox. To make this clear to the reader, we added this information into the relevant section.

Reviewer 3 Report

Good contributions given by the authors may be parameter setting added in the appendix, minor language edit is required.

 minor language edit is required like spelling and verbs

Author Response

Good contributions given by the authors may be parameter setting added in the appendix, minor language edit is required.
A: Thank you very much for your positive feedback. We had a professional language editor revise our paper for language editing. We tried to make the used parameters as comprehensible as possible.

Reviewer 4 Report

The following points should be included in the manuscript before proceeding to the next phase.

1. This paper ignores the literature review and an in-depth discussion on recent advances related to the topic.

2.Objective of the paper should be clearly mentioned.

3. The bibliography may be improved, as there are very less references from the year 2022 and 2023.

4. Try to limit the conclusions within 2 paragraphs with future research directions.

Author Response

The following points should be included in the manuscript before proceeding to the next phase.

1. This paper ignores the literature review and an in-depth discussion on recent advances related to the topic.
   A: Thank you for your review. Since there seems to be no other research performed on this exact topic in the last few years (apart from our own research), it was very hard to find suitable literature to review and compare to. However, we tried to illuminate the subject from all sides so a classification in the scientific context is possible for the reader. Furthermore, we extended the paper in several sections and included a comparison to our previous findings and a competing technology in the discussion section. We hope that this is a sufficient enhancement of our manuscript.

2. Objective of the paper should be clearly mentioned.
A: Thank you for this useful comment. We revised the introduction to make the paper’s objective more clear to the reader.

3. The bibliography may be improved, as there are very less references from the year 2022 and 2023.
   A: Thank you for this suggestion. We tried to include references which are as recent as possible. Unfortunately, since 2023 is still ongoing, it was hard for us to find many suitable articles that are already published. However, we tried to keep the references as recent as possible while limiting to sources that are as relevant as possible.
4. Try to limit the conclusions within 2 paragraphs with future research directions.
   A: Thank you for this comment. We condensed the conclusions accordingly and added future research directions into the concluding section.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

I am satisfied with this revision.

Grammar should be reviewed carefully