Energies, Vol. 12, Pages 4638: Integration of Stationary Batteries for Fast Charge EV Charging Stations (Energies)

One of the biggest issues preventing the spread of electric vehicles is the difficulty in supporting distributed fast charging stations by actual distribution grids. Indeed, a significant amount of power is required for fast charging, especially if multiple vehicles must be supplied simultaneously. A possible solution to mitigate this problem is the installation of auxiliary batteries in the charging station to support the grid during high peak power demands. Nevertheless, the integration of high-voltage batteries with significant power is not a trivial task. This paper proposes the configuration and control of a converter to integrate batteries in a fast charging station. The proposed configuration makes it possible to decouple the grid power from the vehicle power using several auxiliary battery modules. At the same time, the converter makes it possible to draw different amounts of power from the battery modules, allowing the use of second life batteries performing in different ways. This paper discusses the design, control, and operation of the converter. Moreover, the effectiveness of the proposed control is shown by means of numerical results.