Energy Management and Control of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

Charging infrastructure is an important component for the healthy growth of the electric vehicle industry. This article presents an energy management and control study of an electric vehicle charging station. The charging station consists of an AC/DC converter for grid interface and multiple DC/DC converters for electric vehicle battery management. For the grid-side AC/DC converter, a direct-current control mechanism is employed for reactive power, AC system bus voltage, and DC-link voltage control. For the electric vehicle-side DC/DC converters, constant current and constant voltage control mechanisms are developed for electric vehicle charging and discharging management. The article considers energy management needs for charge and discharge of multiple electric vehicles simultaneously in a dynamic price framework. A real-time simulation system is developed to evaluate how the electric vehicle charging station can meet grid-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-grid, and vehicle-to-vehicle charging and discharging requirements.