Abstract
Electric vehicles (EVs) powered by batteries and other energy storage devices (ESDs), e.g., ultracapacitors, are expected to play an important role in the development of a more sustainable future. In this context, charging stations (CSs) are supposed to become the main sources of energy for charging the batteries, being strongly dependent on power electronic converters. This paper analyzes a bidirectional single-phase, three-level stacked neutral-point-clamped (3L-SNPC) converter for CS applications, which may behave as a rectifier or an inverter depending on the power flow direction. Besides, the derived analysis can be easily extended to the development of a three-phase version. Considering that the CS is capable of integrating the utility grid and renewable energy sources, it is possible to absorb or inject energy into the ac grid with high power factor and reduced harmonic content of the current. The main advantages of the bidirectional topology are the existence of a three-level voltage waveform across each leg and the neutral point, while filtering requirements are reduced when compared with typical two-level structures used in EV CSs; the voltage stresses on all semiconductors are equal to half of the total dc-link voltage; power factor is nearly unity in any operation mode; and the voltages across the dc-link capacitors are balanced. The thorough design of the power and control stages is presented, as well as experimental results from a laboratory prototype are discussed in detail.
Highlights
Considering the imminent need to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, as well the eventual depletion of fossil fuels, it is expected that internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) will be replaced by electric vehicles (EVs) in a near future
Protection devices, electromagnetic interference (EMI) filters, circuit breakers, and varistors are included in the prototype
All voltage and current signals measured by the sensors are properly conditioned and filtered to mitigate noise and avoid anti-aliasing in the digital signal processor (DSP)
Summary
Considering the imminent need to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, as well the eventual depletion of fossil fuels, it is expected that internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) will be replaced by electric vehicles (EVs) in a near future. It allows charging independent batteries or even injecting power into the ac grid in EV CS applications, what was not investigated so far in the literature. The phase-disposition sinusoidal pulse width modulation (PD-SPWM) is typically employed in NPC-based topologies [21] This technique must be modified in the case of the converter shown in Fig. 2 in order to provide bidirectional power flow. It is worth mentioning that the converter is designed to process one third of the total power required by its three-phase counterpart
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