Bruno Fernandes Exposto

Assessment of a battery charger for Electric Vehicles with reactive power control

Batteries of Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) have a large potential not only to provide energy for the locomotion of these vehicles, but also to interact, in dynamic way, with the power grid. Thereby, through the energy stored in the batteries, these vehicles can be used to regulate the active and the reactive power, as local Energy Storage Systems. This way, EVs can contribute to help the power grid to regulate the active and reactive power flow in order to stabilize the production and consumption of energy. For this propose should be defined usage profiles, controlled by a collaborative broker, taking into account the requirements of the power grid and the conveniences of the vehicle user. Besides, the interface between the power grid and the EVs, instead of using typical power converters that only work on unidirectional mode, need to use bidirectional power converters to charge the batteries (G2V - Grid-to-Vehicle mode) and to deliver part of the stored energy in the batteries back to the power grid (V2G - Vehicle-to-Grid mode). With the bidirectional power converter topology presented in this paper, the consumed current is sinusoidal and it is possible to regulate the power factor to control the reactive power, aiming to contribute to mitigate power quality problems in the power grid. To assess the behavior of the presented bidirectional power converter under different scenarios, are presented some computer simulations and experimental results obtained with a prototype that was developed to be integrated in an Electric Vehicle.

Bidirectional battery charger with Grid-to-Vehicle, Vehicle-to-Grid and Vehicle-to-Home technologies

This paper presents the development of an on-board bidirectional battery charger for Electric Vehicles (EVs) targeting Grid-to-Vehicle (G2V), Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), and Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) technologies. During the G2V operation mode the batteries are charged from the power grid with sinusoidal current and unitary power factor. During the V2G operation mode the energy stored in the batteries can be delivered back to the power grid contributing to the power system stability. In the V2H operation mode the energy stored in the batteries can be used to supply home loads during power outages, or to supply loads in places without connection to the power grid. Along the paper the hardware topology of the bidirectional battery charger is presented and the control algorithms are explained. Some considerations about the sizing of the AC side passive filter are taken into account in order to improve the performance in the three operation modes. The adopted topology and control algorithms are accessed through computer simulations and validated by experimental results achieved with a developed laboratory prototype operating in the different scenarios.

Improved Vehicle-to-Home (iV2H) Operation Mode: Experimental Analysis of the Electric Vehicle as Off-Line UPS

This paper presents experimental results of electric vehicle (EV) operation as an off-line uninterruptible power supply (UPS). Besides the traditional grid-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-grid modes, this paper presents an improved vehicle-to-home operation mode. This new operation mode consists of the detection of a power outage in the power grid and the change of the EV battery charger control to operate as an off-line UPS. When the power grid voltage is restored, the voltage produced by the on-board EV battery charger is slowly synchronized with the power grid voltage before a complete transition to the normal mode. This paper presents results of two algorithms to detect a power outage: the root mean square (rms) calculation method based on half-cycle of the power grid voltage, and the rms estimation based on a Kalman filter. The experimental results were obtained in steady and transient state considering two cases with the EV plugged in at home: when charging the batteries and without charging the batteries. This paper describes the EV battery charger, the power outage detection methods, and the voltage and current control strategies.

On-board electric vehicle battery charger with enhanced V2H operation mode

This paper proposes an on-board Electric Vehicle (EV) battery charger with enhanced Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) operation mode. For such purpose was adapted an on-board bidirectional battery charger prototype to allow the Grid-to-Vehicle (G2V), Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and V2H operation modes. Along the paper are presented the hardware topology and the control algorithms of this battery charger. The idea underlying to this paper is the operation of the on-board bidirectional battery charger as an energy backup system when occurs a power outages. For detecting the power outage were compared two strategies, one based on the half-cycle rms calculation of the power grid voltage, and another in the determination of the rms value based in a Kalman filter. The experimental results were obtained considering the on-board EV battery charger under the G2V, V2G, and V2H operation modes. The results show that the power outage detection is faster using a Kalman filter, up to 90% than the other strategy. This also enables a faster transition between operation modes when a power outage occurs.

Comparison of current-source and voltage-source Shunt Active Power Filters for harmonic compensation and reactive power control

This paper presents the comparison between two three-phase Shunt Active Power Filters (SAPFs), one with Current-Source Inverter (CSI) and the other with Voltage-Source Inverter (VSI), which are used to compensate current harmonics and to control reactive power. The control algorithm of both SAPFs is based on the Instantaneous Reactive Power Theory (p-q Theory). The comparison here presented focuses on the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and RMS values of the compensated currents, and in the Total Power Factor (TPF) of the installation.

Comprehensive comparison of a current-source and a voltage-source converter for three-phase EV fast battery chargers

This paper presents a comprehensive comparison of a current-source converter and a voltage-source converter for three-phase electric vehicle (EV) fast battery chargers. Taking into account that the current-source converter (CSC) is a natural buck-type converter, the output voltage can assume a wide range of values, which varies between zero and the maximum instantaneous value of the power grid phase-to-phase voltage. On the other hand, taking into account that the voltage-source converter (VSC) is a natural boost-type converter, the output voltage is always greater than the maximum instantaneous value of the power grid phase-to-phase voltage, and consequently, it is necessary to use a dc-dc buck-type converter for applications as EV fast battery chargers. Along the paper is described in detail the principle of operation of both the CSC and the VSC for EV fast chargers, as well as the main equations of the power theory and current control strategies. The comparison between both converters is mainly established in terms of the total harmonic distortion of the grid current and the estimated efficiency for a range of operation between 10 kW and 50 kW.

Three Phase Four Wire Shunt Active Power Filter from theory to industrial facility tests

Non-linear loads are very common in present industrial facilities, office buildings and even in our homes. This loads present several Power Quality problems to the electrical grid. The conventional solutions do not solve these problems in a suitable way. Therefore, it is necessary to find new solutions such as Active Power Filters. This paper presents and discusses the main steps that are necessary to implement a Three Phase Four Wire Shunt Active Power Filter from theory to field tests. Therefore it is a contribution on several topics. Starting with the main control theories used on this topology, it explains the p-q Theory in a more detailed way. It also gives a brief presentation of some modulation techniques. There are presented computational simulation results and field tests results of the developed filter operating in an industrial facility.

Predictive control of a current-source inverter for solar photovoltaic grid interface

Solar photovoltaic systems are an increasing option for electricity production, since they produce electrical energy from a clean renewable energy resource, and over the years, as a result of the research, their efficiency has been increasing. For the interface between the dc photovoltaic solar array and the ac electrical grid is necessary the use of an inverter (dc-ac converter), which should be optimized to extract the maximum power from the photovoltaic solar array. In this paper is presented a solution based on a current-source inverter (CSI) using continuous control set model predictive control (CCS-MPC). All the power circuits and respective control systems are described in detail along the paper and were tested and validated performing computer simulations. The paper shows the simulation results and are drawn several conclusions.

Current-Source Shunt Active Power Filter with Periodic-Sampling Modulation Technique

In this paper are presented experimental and simulation results of a developed Current-Source Three-Phase Shunt Active Power Filter compensating the currents of a nonlinear load. The Shunt Active Power Filter controller, described in detail along the paper, relies in the p-q Theory to calculate the reference compensation currents and to regulate the DC-link inductance current. The regulation of the active filter DC-link inductance current is done consuming sinusoidal currents in phase with the system voltages. The performance and the dynamic behavior of the Shunt Active Power Filter using Periodic Sampling Modulation Technique was assessed first through several computer simulations, and then through the analysis of experimental results obtained with a developed laboratory prototype. Thereby, in this paper are presented several obtained results that show the correct operation of a Current-Source Three-Phase Shunt Active Power Filter using the Periodic-Sampling Modulation Technique.

Evaluation of two fundamental Positive-Sequence Detectors for highly distorted and unbalanced systems

This paper presents an evaluation of the performance of two different Positive-Sequence Detectors. This evaluation is made by comparing a PLL (Phase-Locked-Loop), combined with Lagrange Multipliers Method, with an Adaptive Filter. Both algorithms aim to detect the positive sequence at the fundamental frequency on a given three-phase system voltages or currents. The purpose of this evaluation is to assess the better Positive-Sequence Detector for custom power devices, such as Active Power Filters. The comparative analysis was based on the evaluation of a series of steady state performance parameters (phase and amplitude errors, THD and unbalance) and on the response time. The tests were made to study the behavior of both approaches when working with highly distorted and unbalanced signals. This work was carried out using the computer simulation tool PSCAD/EMTDC.