MADELAINE - a multi-adaptive and cost-efficient DC charging system for EV car parks

Conventional DC chargers for electric vehicles (EVs) can be expensive and inflexible when used in large car parks. To improve this situation, this work presents an alternative modular charging system for EVs. The proposed system enables DC charging of vehicles at multiple distributed charge points using a small ratio of centralized AC/DC inverters. By developing and using an adaptive DC grid, each charge point can be dynamically connected to any subset of inverters. The DC output of the inverters can be electrically operated in parallel which allows for fast charging on single slots as well as charging as many vehicles as inverters are available - or any mixed configuration. To assess the approach, lab test results of the dynamic parallel inverter operation are presented and discussed. In summary, the economic and modular advantages of the proposed system can help to accelerate the rollout of modern EV charging infrastructure.