Power Electronics Intensive Energy Management Solutions for Hybrid Electric Vehicle Energy Storage Systems

Batteries, ultra capacitors (UCs), and fuel cells (FCs) are widely being proposed for electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (EVs/PHEVs) as energy sources. The increasing popularity of EVs and PHEVs can be attributed to the savings in fuel costs, compared to conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. EVs and PHEVs save energy due to the employment of reverse regenerating braking, during the deceleration cycle. This recuperated energy can be proficiently stored in batteries and/or ultra-capacitors. In general, the design of an intelligent control strategy for coordinated power distribution is a critical issue for ultra-capacitor supported PHEV energy storage systems. Implementation of several control methods have been presented in related literature, with the goal of improving battery life and overall vehicle efficiency. The control objectives vary with respect to vehicle velocity, power demand, and state-of-charge of both the batteries and ultra-capacitors. Hence, an optimal control strategy design is a critical aspect of an all-electric/plug-in hybrid electric vehicle operational characteristic. This thesis deals with the detailed analysis and novel hybrid controller design for bidirectional energy management solutions, using smart power electronic DC/DC converter solutions. More specifically, an intelligently designed novel digital control technique is presented for a 4-quadrant switched-capacitor Luo (4Q SC Luo) DC/DC converter. Features of voltage step-down, step-up, and bi-directional power flow are integrated into a single circuit. The novel control strategy enables simpler dynamics, compared to a standard buck converter with input filter, superior regulation capability, lower source current ripple, ease of control, and continuous input current waveform in buck and boost modes of operation. Furthermore, the proposed novel control strategy depicts high converter power density, high efficiency, and simple structure

Design and control of the energy management system of a smart vehicle

This thesis demonstrates the design of two high efficiency controllers, one non-predictive and the other predictive, that can be used in both parallel and power-split connected plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Simulation models of three different commercially available vehicles are developed from measured data for necessary testing and comparisons of developed controllers. Results prove that developed controllers perform better than the existing controllers in terms of efficiency, fuel consumption, and emissions

Design and implementation of hybrid series compensators for smart grid applications

The vision of future modern grids goes through the increase of renewable énergies penetration while providing an efficient, reliable and sustainable power supply to consumers. According to the recent report on climate challenging the way electrical energy is produced and because of the rapid emerging of power electronics based equipment; some serious actions should be engaged. In order to achieve such promoting visions, all power grids are required to become smarter especially at the distribution level. Increasing the application of renewable energy sources and distributed generations assist these vision in the development of a modern power grid where modern equipment are becoming highly sensitive to the supplied voltage quality. Moreover, in this paradigm of design, the traditional power systems based on large concentrated power plants should be able to deal with these unpredictable sources of energy at distribution level. Under these circumstances, considerable activities were carried out aiming to render the grid more flexible and intelligent while taking the power efficiency and its environmental impacts into account. In this way, the power quality issues should be considered for the development of new type of smart grids which are more efficient and sustainable with regards to environmental constraints. Available active and passive compensators are widely involved to improve major power quality issues. Recent trends towards realization of multitasking devices which can solve several power quality issues simultaneously, propose Hybrid active filters or Unified power quality conditioners. These versatile devices should threaten both voltage and current related issues in one place for compensation. They can significantly improve power quality issues, such as voltage distortions, voltage sags, voltage swells, voltage unbalances, and ensure a constant and reliable voltage supply to the load. On the other hand, they compensate for current problems of linear and non-linear loads, such as current harmonics, unbalances, neutral current, and load reactive power. The Hybrid series active filter (HSeAF) is among the most versatile and efficient power electronics based active power compensators. Without the shunt passive filter, the active part could operate solely to rectify for voltage problems and is commonly known as Dynamic voltage restorer. A conventional HSeAF, targeting three-phase system, consists of a three separate series isolation transformer connected to a three-phase converter sharing a common DC link bus. The device is controlled as a variable voltage source in similar but duality manner as of Shunt active power filter. A shunt passive filter tuned for harmonic frequencies is installed to produce an alternative path for load current harmonics and reducing voltage distortions at the load terminals. The existing literature suggests utilizing the hybrid active power filters to compensate for load current related issues only, while due to the complexity and implementation outlays of such devices, it shows a significant drawback of under usage of series compensation to address such power quality problems. The present doctoral research is based on the philosophy of optimal utilization of the available resources in the most efficient way to enhance the product efficiency and to reduce the overall cost. This work proposes a novel control approach for three-phase system in which both the grid’s voltage and load current issues are treated in a co-ordination between the series active and the shunt passive filters without affecting the basic voltage or current compensation capabilities. This eventually results in a better utilization of the series active filter, reduction of the shunt passive filter rating to some extent, and ultimately in the reduction of the overall cost for a unified compensator. Moreover, this thesis also introduces a novel transformerless topology in which the threephase configuration is split into separate devices. It is then possible to extent the Series active power compensation based for three-phase systems with three or four wires to single-phase or bi-phase systems. This newly transformerless hybrid series active filter (THSeAF) is first hosted for single-phase system where appropriate developed controllers ensure adequate operation under low profile power quality systems. The developed single-phase THSeAF concept is successfully validated through digital simulations as well as real-time extensive experimental investigations. The experimental results show that for a given laboratory test conditions with highly polluted nonlinear loads, the active compensator ride of the bulky transformer is capable of compensating load current and correcting the power factor. Moreover, the performance of the THSeAF under polluted grid supply with voltage harmonics, sags, and swells, demonstrates regulated and reduced voltage distortions at the load’s terminals. Following this successful transformerless configuration, and to integrate the series compensation concepts dedicated for power quality improvement of distribution network, the three-phase configuration is anticipated. Three-phase control strategies developed previously for the HSeAF are applied to the proposed topology to make the point of common coupling (PCC) smarter and to decentralize the control of the distribution network. This affordable solution increases the efficiency and sustainability of modern smart power systems and help higher penetration of renewable fluctuating power into the network. The off-line simulations demonstrate that the three-phase THSeAF is capable of healing voltage problems and load current issues simultaneously. The real-time experimental results, carried out on a laboratory prototype, validate successfully the proposed configuration