A Flexible Infrastructure for Dynamic Power Control of Electric Vehicle Battery Chargers

This paper proposes a flexible infrastructure for dynamic power control (FIDPC) of electric vehicle (EV) battery chargers. This infrastructure dynamically adjusts the EV battery charger current, according to the power demand of the home wherein the vehicle is plugged. An infrastructure was implemented to validate this proposal. This infrastructure is composed by an EV battery charger and a communication system based on a radio-frequency (RF) interface. The battery charger has nominal power of 3.6 kVA and operates with sinusoidal current and unitary total power factor, whereas the RF interface provides continuous data flow to the battery charger with information on the home total current consumption (root-mean-square value). Experimental tests were performed under realistic conditions to validate the concept behind the proposed FIDPC. These tests served to assess the behavior of the EV battery charger with dynamic power control on a single-phase 230-V 16-A 50-Hz residential electrical installation. The experimental results confirm the quick time response of the FIDPC, even when working under heavy-home-load variations.