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Power Converter Configurations, Infrastructures, Smart Stations and Effective Solutions for On-Board and Off-Board Battery Chargers for Electric Vehicles

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "E: Electric Vehicles".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2020) | Viewed by 22311

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Gabriele Grandi

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Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Information Engineering, University of Bologna, 40136 Bologna, Italy
Interests: multilevel and multiphase converters; photovoltaic generation systems; power conditioning systems
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Dr. Mattia Ricco

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Guest Editor

Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Information Engineering "Guglielmo Marconi", University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
Interests: power electronics; electric vehicle chargers; modular multilevel converters; battery management systems; photovoltaics; battery storage systems
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Dr. Manel Hammami

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Guest Editor

Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Information Engineering, University of Bologna, 40136 Bologna, Italy
Interests: multilevel converters; photovoltaic generation systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent months, automakers have been announcing plans weekly to add electric vehicles (EVs) to their line-up. Customer surveys and marketing experts say that the main obstacles to the uptake of electric cars are driving range and recharge-time anxiety: the fear that there are not enough charging stations and/or there is not enough time to recharge the vehicle to accomplish its daily business.

As is known, the real difference between EVs and vehicles with internal combustion engine is the amount of time and effort it takes to refuel them. In fact, considering a typical petrol engine, the vehicle can be refueled with a range of 500 km in a few minutes (50 liters) within a self-service pump station. Fast charge is intended as the capability to store in the batteries of the EV an amount of energy able to guarantee a range of at least 150-200 km (let us say 100 miles), corresponding to about 25 kWh (at least), in a charging period of about 10 minutes or less. The necessary average electric power is in the order of 150 kW (at least).

Further analysis must be also accomplished to evaluate the impact of these new EV charging stations in the utility grid, in terms of both power and energy demand. New efforts are needed for their successful and painless integration. The ability to provide new vehicle-to-grid (V2G) services, such as active power services and power quality services, is also of great interest. Then, power and energy management strategies and communication infrastructure are crucial for the upcoming challenges and novel opportunities in actual and future distribution grids.

This Special Issue is intended to motivate further research and development of EV chargers, refreshing the state-of-the-art, pointing out the benefits of emerging power converter topologies, defining novel modulation schemes, conceiving new telecommunication infrastructure among EVs, charging stations and grids, developing innovative power and energy management strategies, and investigating the integration of the charging stations with local (renewable) energy production and storage.

Original contributions including experimental validation are expected. The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

- optimization of power flows and energy management in fast charging stations;

- integration of charging stations with renewable energy generation and storage systems;

- novel converter topologies, including multilevel and/or interleaved AC/DC and DC/DC schemes;

- original modulation strategies for power converters in fast chargers;

- on-board fast chargers (AC supply) by exploiting the traction drive inverter;

- compact and flexible on-board chargers;

- EV chargers based on wireless power transfer;

- power quality management, analysis and control;

- vehicle-to-grid services;

- telecommunication infrastructures among EVs, charging stations and grids;

- analysis and modelling of power electronic converters for EV chargers;

- control architecture based on microcontrollers, DSPs, and FPGAs.

Prof. Dr. Gabriele Grandi
Dr. Mattia Ricco
Guest Editors

Dr. Manel Hammami
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

Energy and power management
Power electronic converters
Electrical energy storage
Integration of renewable energy
Fats charging protocols for electric vehicles
Fast charging stations architectures
On-board and off-board fast charging schemes
Vehicle-to-grid services
Wireless power chargers

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 15351 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Off-Board Multi-Functional Electric Vehicle Charging Station for Smart Homes: Analysis and Experimental Validation

by Vitor Monteiro, Pedro Lima, Tiago J. C. Sousa, Julio S. Martins and Joao L. Afonso

Energies 2020, 13(8), 1864; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13081864 - 11 Apr 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2815

Abstract

This paper presents the analysis and experimental validation of a single-phase off-board multi-functional electric vehicle (EV) charging station (MF-EVCS), which has a single ac interface and two dc interfaces. As innovative aspects, the proposed MF-EVCS handles the interface of the ac power grid, the dc interface of a renewable energy source (RES), as well as the dc interface of an EV to perform dc charging or discharging of the batteries (in off-board grid-to-vehicle (G2V) or vehicle-to-grid (V2G) modes). Considering the power grid, the individual operation modes of the RES and the EV interfaces can be considered. Moreover, a combination of these modes is also possible. Besides, the MF-EVCS has as key innovative aspect the possibility of operating as an active power filter (APF), supporting the operation with reactive power and/or selected current harmonics. This possibility can be associated with any of the previous mentioned modes. These new features are framed in two distinct scenarios: in a smart home, where the ac-side current can be determined as a function of the other electrical appliances; in a smart grid, where the ac-side current can be determined as a requisite of the power grid. The proposed power theory, as well as the current control strategies for both ac-side and dc-side of the MF-EVCS, are presented in the paper for all the possible operation scenarios. A laboratory prototype was developed to validate the proposed MF-EVCS and the experimental results confirm its suitability for smart homes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Converter Configurations, Infrastructures, Smart Stations and Effective Solutions for On-Board and Off-Board Battery Chargers for Electric Vehicles)

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17 pages, 7526 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Full-Bridge Active-Clamp Forward-Flyback Converter with an Integrated Transformer for High-Performance and Low Cost Low-Voltage DC Converter of Vehicle Applications

by Jaeil Baek and Han-Shin Youn

Energies 2020, 13(4), 863; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13040863 - 16 Feb 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 6526

Abstract

This paper presents a full-bridge active-clamp forward-flyback (FBACFF) converter with an integrated transformer sharing a single primary winding. Compared to the conventional active-clamp-forward (ACF) converter, the proposed converter has low voltage stress on the primary switches due to its full-bridge active-clamp structure, which can leverage high performance Silicon- metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (Si-MOSFET) of low voltage rating and low channel resistance. Integrating forward and flyback operations allows the proposed converter to have much lower primary root mean square (RMS) current than the conventional phase-shifted-full-bridge (PSFB) converter, while covering wide input/output voltage range with duty ratio over 0.5. The proposed integrated transformer reduces the transformer conduction loss and simplify the secondary structure of the proposed converter. As a result, the proposed converter has several advantages: (1) high heavy load efficiency, (2) wide input voltage range operation, (3) high power density with the integrated transformer, and (4) low cost. The proposed converter is a very promising candidate for applications with wide input voltage range and high power, such as the low-voltage DC (LDC) converter for eco-friendly vehicles. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Converter Configurations, Infrastructures, Smart Stations and Effective Solutions for On-Board and Off-Board Battery Chargers for Electric Vehicles)

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18 pages, 8112 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multileg Interleaved Buck Converter for EV Charging: Discrete-Time Model and Direct Control Design

by Stefania Cuoghi, Riccardo Mandrioli, Lorenzo Ntogramatzidis and Grandi Gabriele

Energies 2020, 13(2), 466; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13020466 - 17 Jan 2020

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 4958

Abstract

This paper presents the modeling and the implementation of the digital control of a multileg interleaved DC-DC buck converter for electrical vehicle (EV) charging. Firstly, we derive a discrete averaged model of an n-leg interleaved buck converter (IBC). Secondly, we present a direct tuning procedure for one primary discrete PIDF (PID + filter) and multiple secondary PI controller. The objective of the control system is to regulate the current flow in each leg of the converter. This task is accomplished by introducing a novel control paradigm that simultaneously addresses two aims: on the one hand, the control scheme must guarantee an acceptable level of robustness under load variations; while on the other, an even distribution of power on each leg must be ensured at any operational condition. The proposed strategy hinges on a technique that combines simplicity and precision in the fulfillment of design frequency specifications. We use simulations and a digital signal processor (DSP) based experimental implementation of the design technique to validate the proposed methodology. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Converter Configurations, Infrastructures, Smart Stations and Effective Solutions for On-Board and Off-Board Battery Chargers for Electric Vehicles)

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14 pages, 9135 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigations of AC Microgrid Energy Management Systems Using Distributed Energy Resources and Plug-in Electric Vehicles

by Umashankar Subramaniam, Swaminathan Ganesan, Mahajan Sagar Bhaskar, Sanjeevikumar Padmanaban, Frede Blaabjerg and Dhafer J. Almakhles

Energies 2019, 12(14), 2834; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12142834 - 23 Jul 2019

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3258

Abstract

The world has witnessed a rapid transformation in the field of electrical generation, transmission and distribution. We have been constantly developing and upgrading our technology to make the system more economically efficient. Currently, the industry faces an acute shortage of energy resources due to overconsumption by industries worldwide. This has compelled experts to look for alternatives to fossil fuels and other conventional sources of energy to produce energy in a more sustainable manner. The microgrid concept has gained popularity over the years and has become a common sight all over the world because of the ability of a microgrid to provide power to a localized section without being dependent on conventional resources. This paper focuses on development of such an AC hybrid microgrid, which receives power from distributed energy resources (DERs) such as a PV array alongside a battery storage system, and also uses an emergency diesel generator system and an online uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system to provide power to predefined loads under different conditions. This paper also addresses on the power flow to the loads under two main modes of operation—on grid and off grid—and investigates the microgrid in different states and sub-states. The final objective is to design an efficient microgrid model such that it can sustain the multiple loads simultaneously under all operating conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Converter Configurations, Infrastructures, Smart Stations and Effective Solutions for On-Board and Off-Board Battery Chargers for Electric Vehicles)

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14 pages, 3573 KiB

Open AccessArticle

State of Charge Estimation for Power Lithium-Ion Battery Using a Fuzzy Logic Sliding Mode Observer

by Wenhui Zheng, Bizhong Xia, Wei Wang, Yongzhi Lai, Mingwang Wang and Huawen Wang

Energies 2019, 12(13), 2491; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12132491 - 28 Jun 2019

Cited by 51 | Viewed by 3813

Abstract

State of charge (SOC) estimation is of vital importance for the battery management system in electric vehicles. This paper proposes a new fuzzy logic sliding mode observer for SOC estimation. The second-order resistor-capacitor equivalent circuit model is used to describe the discharging/charging behavior of the battery. The exponential fitting method is applied to determine the parameters of the model. The fuzzy logic controller is introduced to improve the performance of sliding mode observer forming the fuzzy logic sliding mode observer (FLSMO). The Federal Urban Driving Schedule (FUDS), the West Virginia Suburban Driving Schedule (WUBSUB), and the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) schedule test results show that the average SOC estimation error of FLSMO algorithm is less than 1%. When the initial SOC estimation error is 20%, the FLSMO algorithm can converge to 3% error boundary within 2400 s. Comparison test results show that the FLSMO algorithm has better performance than the sliding mode observer and the extended Kalman filter in terms of robustness against measurement noise and parameter disturbances. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Converter Configurations, Infrastructures, Smart Stations and Effective Solutions for On-Board and Off-Board Battery Chargers for Electric Vehicles)

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