Abstract

Many countries have a large dependence on imported fossil fuels whose prices increase almost every day. Knowing that much of this consumption is for transportation systems, it becomes essential to seek for alternatives. The natural bet is the electric mobility, namely through Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs). However, the wide spread utilization of these vehicles has consequences on the electrical power grid, mainly in terms of load management and electric power quality, which are associated to the batteries charging systems. In this scenario, this chapter assesses the electric mobility integration in Smart Grid context, focusing different approaches to the operation of EVs and PHEVs charging processes and the specifications of the chargers, as well as different topologies of charging systems and their features, modes of operation, typical waveforms, and impact in the electrical power grid in terms of power quality. It is also presented a laboratory prototype of a bidirectional EV charger and shown some experimental results. This prototype was developed to charge the batteries aiming to preserve their lifespan, and to contribute to mitigate the degradation of the power quality. The experimental results show the operation of this prototype during the batteries charging process (G2V – Grid-to-Vehicle operation), and during the delivering of stored energy back to the electrical power grid (V2G – Vehicle-to-Grid operation). FEDER Funds - Operational Program for Competitiveness Factors – COMPETE Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-022674, MITPT/ EDAM-SMS/0030/2008

Abstract

In this paper is presented an H-Bridge Multilevel Converter topology for Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs). The topology of the presented multilevel converter allows the interface between the batteries, the electric motor of the vehicle, and the electrical power grid. Thereby, taking into account that the proposed multilevel converter requires the use of isolated voltage sources, the interface between the batteries and the multilevel converter is evaluated regarding the converter operation as a Battery Management System (BMS), controlling the charging and discharging processes. The interface between the multilevel converter and the electrical power grid is described considering a bidirectional operation. These modes of operation occur during the batteries charging process, denominated as Grid-to-Vehicle (G2V), and during the operation as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), that consists in delivering back to the electrical power grid a small amount of the energy stored in the batteries, in accordance with the electrical grid requirements and with the vehicle driver accordance. In both modes of operation, the waveform of the AC current of the electrical power grid is kept sinusoidal with unitary power factor, contributing to maintain a good level of power quality. FEDER Funds - Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors (COMPETE) Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PTDC/EEA-EEL/104569/2008, MITPT/ EDAM-SMS/0030/2008