216 Int. J. Power Electronics, Vol. 5, Nos.

3/4, 2013

New topology for management of bi-directional power

flow between vehicle and grid with reduced ripple
current at unity power factor

Arun Kumar Verma*, Bhim Singh and

D.T. Shahani
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi,
New Delhi-110016, India
E-mail: arunverma59@gmail.com
E-mail: bhimsingh1956@gmail.com
E-mail: dt.shahani@gmail.com
*Corresponding author

Abstract: In this paper, a new topology of single-phase pulse width modulated

(PWM) AC-DC converter is proposed for bidirectional power flow between
plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) and the grid. This converter consists of
a PWM voltage source converter (VSC) and a ripple reduction circuit. The
ripple reduction circuit consists of a switching leg and an inductor. The
inductor is connected between the midpoints of the second and third legs of
VSC. An AC voltage of 230 V, 50 Hz is converted into 400 V DC using a
single-phase VSC with ripple compensation circuit. A buck-boost DC-DC
converter charges and discharges the battery of the electric vehicle (EV) or
PHEV with this 400 V DC. While in discharging mode, it feeds energy back to
the grid. The zero voltage regulation (ZVR) and power factor correction (PFC)
modes of operation at PCC are also achieved with reactive power compensation
and harmonics elimination of other connected loads at PCC with modified
control in order to improve the power quality at the grid.

Keywords: voltage source converter; VSC; vehicle to grid; V2G; grid to

vehicle; G2V; plug-in hybrid electric vehicle; PHEV; electric vehicle; EV;
ripple current compensation; zero voltage regulation; ZVR; power factor
correction; PFC.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Verma, A.K., Singh, B. and
Shahani, D.T. (2013) ‘New topology for management of bi-directional power
flow between vehicle and grid with reduced ripple current at unity power
factor’, Int. J. Power Electronics, Vol. 5, Nos. 3/4, pp.216–235.

Biographical notes: Arun Kumar Verma received his BE from DCRUST

Mutharal (Sonepat) Harayana, India in 2003 and MTech from Indian Institute
of Technology Delhi, India in 2010. Currently, he is pursuing his PhD from
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. His research interests include power
electronics, bi-directional power flow, electrical machines and renewable
energy. He is a student member of IEEE.

Bhim Singh is working as a Professor at the Department of Electrical

Engineering, IIT, and New Delhi. His current research interests include
power electronics, electrical machines and drives, active filters, flexible ac
transmission system (FACTS), high-voltage dc (HVDC), and power quality.
He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), the
National Academy of Science, India (NASI), the Institution of Engineers, India

Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

 New topology for management of bi-directional power flow 217

[IE(I)], and the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers

(IETE). He is a life member of the Indian Society for Technical Education
(ISTE), the System Society of India (SSI) and the National Institution of
Quality and Reliability (NIQR) and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineering (IEEE).

D.T. Shahani received his Bachelor of Technology in Electronics from Indian

Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, in 1973 (silver medallist), and PhD
from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi, India, in 1979. He is
associated with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi, since 1973
and currently he is a Professor in Instrument Design and Development Centre
(IDDC), IIT Delhi, New Delhi. In 2011, he received the prestigious award of
Excellence in Teaching (IIT Delhi, Golden Jubilee Year) 2011. He was a
recipient of Outstanding Development and Technology award in Electro
Magnetic Systems. He was also a recipient of Outstanding Instructional
Element award (Teaching at IIT D) in 1991. He has a number of researches,
consultancies and numerous transfers of technologies to his credit. His area of
specialisation is electronics, instrumentation, electromagnetic transducers, and
EMI/EMC.

1 Introduction

Electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) rely on AC power
grid as they have to plug-in to the grid in order to charge their batteries. With energy
crises and increased demand for energy in whole world, the energy requirements of
grid-connected EVs may make the energy crisis worst (Brooks and Gage, 2001).
However, with a bi-directional grid power interface, these EVs or PHEVs, can plug into
the grid and they can potentially feedback energy to the grid. EVs can support the grid
exceptionally well in terms of peak demand and off peak power demand. These demand
managements are vital to the smooth and efficient operation of the power grid. Sharing
power assets between transportation and power generation can create a compelling new
economics for electrically-propelled vehicles. A statewide fleet of order of 100,000 EVs
connected to grid can provide 1,000 MW of geographically-dispersed power with each
EV having an average capacity of 10 kW, with the potential for synchronised fast
response. This vehicle-based capability would represent a massive new force to deal with
grid instability (Saber and Venayagamoorthy, 2009; Chan and Chau, 1997; Kempton and
Tomic, 2005). Various configurations of voltage source converters (VSCs) and DC-DC
converters are available in the literature for bi-directional power flow (Singh et al., 2003;
Bai and Mi, 2012). The technical challenges are to develop suitable control algorithms,
and to communicate the power of all such vehicles.
In earlier single phase bi directional power flow converters, a bulky DC link capacitor
is used to compensate second order harmonic ripple current, which results in low power
density and requires large space (Verma et al., 2011). The other approach is to add an
active energy storage (a passive L-C resonant) circuit in parallel with the DC-bus
capacitor to bypass the ripple energy that flows into the DC-bus capacitor (Verma et al.,
2012a, 2012b). In this proposed configuration, the converter requires neither a large
bulky DC capacitor nor a passive L-C resonant circuit.
218 A.K. Verma et al.

In this research work, a new configuration of a single phase full bridge bidirectional
power flow VSC with a ripple reduction circuit is used which consists of an additional
switching leg and an inductor. This inductor is connected between the midpoints of the
second and third legs of VSC thus enabling the AC mode, with a bidirectional DC-DC
converter for the bidirectional power transfer of a PHEV or EV battery (Shimizu et al.,
2000, 1997a, 1997b). EVs need a high voltage DC bus to supply power to charge a
battery in charging mode and to feedback energy to a 230 V; 50 Hz AC mains in
discharging mode. The bidirectional power flow between EVs and grid usually includes a
DC-DC bi-directional converter between DC voltage bus and the storage battery.
Bi-directional DC-DC converters are widely used in charging/discharging topologies in
the EVs (Zhou et al., 2009; Shi et al., 2008; Erb et al., 2010; Lee et al., 2009; Zhang,
2008; Waffler and Kolar, 2009).
The proposed converter configuration is designed to charge a vehicle storage battery
up to 15 A current at 120 V. It is also capable to transfer energy back to a 230 V, 50 Hz
single-phase power at 15 A rate. The proposed single-phase bidirectional full bridge
boost AC-DC converter is used with a third leg and an inductor connected between
second and third legs to convert AC to DC voltage with power factor correction (PFC)
(Aguilar et al., 1997). Proposed converter reduces the ripple voltage at the DC bus.
Furthermore, this novel control method eliminates the ripple current. The bi-directional
power flow buck-boost DC-DC converter is used in buck mode for charging storage
battery and a boost mode when discharging the storage battery (Zhang and Jiang, 2012;
Onori et al., 2012; Ceraola, 2000). The charging and discharging from/to grid, of the
storage battery demonstrate the capability of the system. Further with slight modification
in control algorithm, the proposed converter is used to regulate the point of common
coupling (PCC) voltage or PFC with reactive power compensation and harmonics
elimination for other connected linear/non-linear loads at PCC, thus improving the power
quality of the grid system.

2 System configuration and operating principle

Figure 1 shows the proposed system configuration with a single-phase bidirectional

power flow full bridge boost AC-DC converter with a ripple compensation circuit and a
bidirectional buck-boost DC-DC converter with a storage battery. The ripple
compensation circuit consists of an additional leg of two insulated gate bipolar transistors
(IGBTs). The DC link capacitor is quite small because this capacitor is used only to filter
the high-frequency switching ripples. The DC-DC converter, shown in Figure 2 in buck
mode, charges the storage battery (Figure 3) and discharges it in boost mode. In buck
mode, battery voltage (120 V) is lower than the DC bus voltage (400 V), which operates
by controlling the duty ratio.
A triangular modulation signal having a switching frequency of 10 kHz is used for the
switching of PWM AC-DC converter and ripple compensation circuit. As shown in
Figure 1, the leg A and leg B are used for PWM AC-DC converter. The turn-on signals
for S1 and S3 are generated by comparing the wave forms of leg A control signals (VA)
and leg B control signals (VB) with a triangular modulation signals (VT). To generate
control signals for ripple reduction circuit both leg B and leg C are used. In order to
demonstrate additional functions of proposed converter, a domestic load is connected at
 New topology for management of bi-directional power flow 219

PCC and the control algorithm is modified to achieve zero voltage regulation (ZVR) or
PFC with reactive power compensation and harmonics elimination as shown in
Figure 4(a).

Figure 1 Proposed converter configuration for bi-directional power flow

Figure 2 Bidirectional buck boost DC-DC converter

ib

S7 Lo
buck
ib

Cdc Vdc C0 Battery

S8 Vb
boost
buck boost
ib
PWM
Control i* b
220 A.K. Verma et al.

Figure 3 Thevenin’s equivalent circuit of storage battery

Rb Cbb
Vb

Rs
Voc

3 System analysis and design

The analysis and design of different components of the proposed converter configuration
are given in this section.

3.1 Analysis of proposed system

The analysis of the proposed converter configuration is based on the conversion of AC in
to DC, ripple reduction circuit and bi-directional DC-DC converter. The switching
frequency for switches is comparatively higher than the line frequency. The ideal input
voltage and input current to PWM AC-DC converter are given as,
vi = Vmi sin θ (1)
where Vmi the peak of ideal input voltage and Φ = ωt.
The input current of leg A is given as,
is = I sm sin(θ − φ ) (2)

where θ is the phase angle (wt), and φ is the input power factor angle of the supply.
Let the duty ratio of S1 and S3 are DA and DB respectively. The sum of DA + DB = 1.
The actual AC PWM voltage (VAB) over one switching cycle is given as,
VAB = ( DA − DB ) Vdc = mVdc (3)

where m is modulation index and Vdc is the DC output voltage.

From equations (1) and (3) by equating ideal and actual PWM input voltages the
value of modulation index m, DA and DB are expressed as,
m = (Vmi Vdc ) sin θ = mmax sin θ (4)

DA = 0.5 (1 + mmax sin θ ) (5)

DB = 0.5 (1 − mmax sin θ ) (6)

where mmax is the peak value of the modulation index.

 New topology for management of bi-directional power flow 221

Figure 4 (a) Proposed modified controller configuration to demonstrate the effect of bidirectional
power flow on grid and distribution system (b) Switching stages in the ripple
compensation circuit (Iw > 0) charging mode (c) Switching stages in the ripple
compensation circuit (Iw > 0) discharging mode

(a)

(b) (c)

The average DC output current iD over one switching cycle is given as,
iD = ( DA − DB ) I sm (7)

By substituting the value from equations (4), (5), (6) and (2) in to equation (7), the
average DC current is given as (Verma et al., 2012b),
222 A.K. Verma et al.

iD = 0.707 mmax I sm {cos φ − cos(2θ − φ / 2)} (8)

This DC current (iD) is a combination of pure DC current (idc) as well as ripple current,
the ripple current (irip) these are given as,

idc = 0.707 mmax I sm cos φ (9)

irip = −0.707 mmax I sm cos(2θ − φ / 2) (10)

The condition φ = 0 is considered in order to achieve unity power factor.

The ripple compensation circuit has one leg of switching device (leg C) having an
interleaved inductor between leg B and leg C. The current iw flowing through inductor Lw
to the DC output during one complete switching cycle is given as,
iw = ( DB − DC ) iC (11)

where iC is the current flow from the DC output to Lw as shown in Figure 4(b) and
Figure 4(c).
Total output current on PWM VSC is expressed as,
iTotal = iD + iw = idc + irip + iw (12)

where iw after passing through LPF is pure DC current component (Iwa) and irip is AC
current component that has twice the frequency of the input AC current. By controlling
the amplitude of iw to cancel the ripple current (irip), the DC ripple current reduction is
achieved.

3.2 Design of proposed system

The various components of proposed converter configuration are designed for
bidirectional power flow from grid to vehicle (G2V) and vehicle to grid (V2G) single
phase full bridge boost AC-DC converter with additional leg of switches, an inductor
connected to two terminals on the DC bus, a bidirectional DC-DC boost converter, and a
storage battery. The design of various components of proposed system is given as
following.

3.2.1 Design of single phase VSC

A circuit of a single phase VSC is shown in Figure 1. The VSC consists of four switching
devices. The IGBTs with anti parallel diodes are used in VSC. A single-phase VSC for a
230 V, 5 kW power flow is designed here.
The value of rms load current is given as,

VA P0
I rms = = (13)
Vrms ( p.f .)Vrms

where

VA = ( Load Power / p.f .) (14)

 New topology for management of bi-directional power flow 223

The rms value of load current from equation (13) is estimated as 21.70 A for a 5 kW
power flow. Since the crest factor (CF) of the current of the parallel connected non-linear
load to be compensated by this VSC is the order of 2, therefore the peak load current (Ip)
is expressed as,
I P = (CF ) I rms (15)

So the value of peak current from equation (15) is estimated as 43.4 A. By considering a
safety factor of 1.5, the standard rating of the device is selected 75 A.
For the load voltage of 230 V rms, peak voltage of this single phase VSC is expressed
as,

V peak = 2 *Vrms (16)

The value of peak voltage from equation (16) is estimated as 325.22 V. By considering a
safety factor of 1.5, the device rating is estimated 487.83 V. So the IGBTs of 600 V and
75 A are selected to form the VSC.
Design of the interfacing inductor Lw is carried out as per Shimizu et al. (2000) and its
estimated value of Lw is 3.86 mH and it is selected as 4 mH for this configuration.
Detailed design parameters are given in Appendix A.

3.2.2 Design of DC bus capacitor

The value of DC link capacitor (Cdc) without ripple compensation circuit is given as
(Mohan et al., 2009),
I dc
Cdc = (17)
2* ω *Δv
where Idc, ω and Δv are DC link current (Pdc / Vdc), angular frequency and ripple voltage
(5% of Vdc) respectively.
The value of Cdc is estimated as 1 mF using equation (17).

Figure 5 Ripple current waveform

With the inclusion of ripple compensation circuit in the proposed system, the ripple
current flowing through DC link is sinusoidal of twice of supply frequency and its replica
is shown in Figure 5. The calculation of the DC link capacitor is based on the ripple
current flowing through it during charging and discharging. The current Iw is controlled in
224 A.K. Verma et al.

such a manner so that irip can be nullified, thus a capacitor is used only to filter the high
frequency switching ripples. Thus, the design of the DC link capacitor is based on the
charging and discharging of the DC link capacitor. At a particular instant the relation
between charge on DC link capacitor is given as,
ΔQ = Cdc *ΔV (18)

where ΔQ is charge on capacitor Cdc is the DC link capacitor and ΔV is the ripple voltage
and it is considered as 1% of Vdc.
As Vdc is 400 V, so the estimated value of ΔV is 4 V, as the ripple current flowing
through the DC link is sinusoidal the ΔQ can be given as,
t/2
⎛ 2imrip ⎞ ⎛ t ⎞ ⎛ 2imrip ⎞ ⎛ 1 ⎞
ΔQ = ∫ i(t )dt = ⎜⎝
0
⎟ * ⎜ ⎟ or ⎜ ⎟*
π ⎠ ⎝ 2 ⎠ ⎝ π ⎠ ⎜⎝ 2* f s ⎟⎠
(19)

where imrip = (√2 * irip) is the maximum value of the ripple current (irip).
From simulation results the value of irip is 0.8 A thus imrip is estimated as 1.131 A, fs is
the switching frequency for VSC and is considered as 10 kHz, the estimated value of the
ΔQ from equation (19) is 360.1 µC. From equation (18), the calculated value of Cdc is
90 µF and it is selected as 100 µF here.

3.2.3 Design of bidirectional buck-boost DC-DC converter

Figure 2 shows a bidirectional buck-boost DC-DC converter. The solid state switches S7
and S8 are used in buck and boost modes respectively. The value of inductance Lo for this
converter is given as (Zhang, 2008),

Lo = {1 ( 2 * P * f sb )} ⎡⎣(1 {1 (1 / Vdc + 1 / Vo )} ) ⎤⎦ (20)

where P, Vi = Vdc, V0 and fsb are conversion power, input voltage, output voltage and
switching frequency respectively, and their values are 5 kW, 400 V, 120 V and 50 kHz
respectively. From equation (20), the value of Lo is estimated as 2.09 mH. These design
parameters are given in Appendix B.

3.2.4 Design of battery energy storage system

The charging and discharging of a lead acid battery is modelled using
MATLAB/SIMULINK. It has a storage capacity of 3.6 kW for 15 Hours with voltage
variation of 107 V to 137 V. The Thevenin’s equivalent circuit of the lead acid storage
battery is shown in Figure 3. The value of equivalent series resistance Rs is taken 0.01 Ώ.
The parallel branch of Rb (taken as 10 kΏ) and Cbb represents the self discharging resistor
and storage capacitor of the battery.
An equivalent capacitor (Cbb) which stored the energy in kWh is expressed as,

Cbb = ⎡⎣ kWh *3, 600 *1, 000 {0.5 (Voc2 max − Voc2 min )}⎤⎦ (21)

where Vocmax and Vocmin are the terminal voltage of the storage battery when it is fully
charged and discharge respectively (Zhang and Jiang, 2012; Onori et al., 2012; Ceraola,
2000).
 New topology for management of bi-directional power flow 225

The calculated value of Cbb using equation (21) is order of 3,224.92 F.

The detailed design data of the proposed system are given in Table 1.
Table 1 Parameters used for design and simulation

Sn. Component Value

1 Grid impedance (Zs) 1.27 mH, 0.1 Ω
2 IGBT module rating 600 V, 75 A
3 Input AC filter capacitor (Cs) 10 µF
4 Interfacing inductance (Li) 1.5 mH
5 Interleaved inductor (Lw) 4 mH
6 DC link capacitor (Cdc) 100 µF
7 Buck-boost converter inductor (Lo) 2.09 mH
8 Storage battery (Rb, Rs) 10,000 Ω, 0.001 Ω

4 Control algorithm

The control strategy of proposed configuration is given in this section.

4.1 Control of single phase PWM AC-DC converter

The control algorithm for proposed configuration of Figure 1 is combination of unipolar
switching and DC inductor current control. The DC link voltage (Vdc) is sensed and
filtered using a low pass filter (LPF). The proportional integral (PI) DC bus voltage
controller compares the Vdc with reference voltage (Vref) and generates a control signal
*
( I sm ) to eliminate the voltage error Ve(k) which is estimated from the reference voltage
Vref(k) and a sensed voltage Vdc(k) at kth instant of time as (Mohan et al., 2009),
Ve (k ) = Vref (k ) − Vdc (k ) (22)
*
The output of the PI voltage controller, I sm (k ) at kth instant is given as,
*
I sm (k ) = I m* (k − 1) + K pv {Ve (k ) – Ve (k − 1)} + KivVe (k ) (23)

where Kpv and Kiv are the proportional and integral gains of the voltage controller.
The reference grid current is* (k ) is calculated as,
*
isp (k ) = I sm
*
(k ) * u p (24)

where up = (vs / Vsm) and vs is instantaneous PCC voltage and Vsm is its amplitude.
The current error Ie(k) is calculated from this reference grid current is* (k ) and sensed
grid current is(k) as,
I e (k ) = is* (k ) − is (k ) (25)

This current error is amplified using the PI current controller which is given as,
Vc (k ) = Vc (k − 1) + K p1 { I e (k ) – I e (k − 1)} + K i1 I e (k ) (26)
226 A.K. Verma et al.

This output signal Vc is considered as modulating signal.

The triangular carrier waveform of 10 kHz is compared with two reference signals
which are positive Vc(k) and negative {–Vc(k)} signals and consequently four gating
signals are generated for VSC in this unipolar switching of VSC. These four signals are
used to control the four solid state switches, S1 – S4.
To control the ripple compensation circuit, the DC ripple current irip and interleaved
*
inductor current (iw) are sensed and reference value of DC ripple current irip (k ) is kept
zero in order to minimise the ripples. The current error Ie1(k) is calculated from reference
*
DC ripple current irip (k ) and DC ripple current irip(k) as,

I e1 (k ) = irip
*
(k ) − irip (k ) (27)

This current error is amplified using the PI current controller which output is given as,
Vc1 (k ) = Vc1 (k − 1) + K p 2 { I e1 (k ) – I e1 (k − 1)} + K i 2 I e1 (k ) (28)

Interleaved inductor current (iw) is sensed and pass through LPF so that the current flow
trough it is mainly DC component (Iwa). The reference value of interleaved inductor
current (iw* ) is kept zero. The current error Ie2(k) is calculated from reference inductor
current iw* (k ) and DC link current iw(k) as,

ie 2 (k ) = iw* (k ) − iw (k ) (29)

This current error is amplified using another PI current controller which output is given
as,
Vc 2 (k ) = Vc 2 (k − 1) + K p 3 { I e 2 (k ) – I e 2 (k − 1)} + K i 3 I e 2 (k ) (30)

Thus, these obtained signals Vc, Vc1, Vc2 are added to get a control signal as,

V p = {( −Vc ) + Vc1 + Vc 2 } (31)

This signal Vp is compared with the triangular waveform of 10 kHz and thus generated
signal is inverted and these two signals are used to control the third leg solid state
switches S5 and S6.

4.2 Control of bidirectional DC-DC converter

The charging and discharging of the battery are controlled by using a bidirectional
buck-boost converter. The current error Ies(k) which is generated from the reference
battery current ib* (k ) and a sensed battery current ib(k) at ksh instant of time is given as,

I es (k ) = ib* (k ) − ib (k ) (32)

The output of the PI current controller with this error Ies(k) is Vcb(k) at ksh instant it is
generated as,
Vcb (k ) = Vcb (k − 1) + K p 4 { I es (k ) – I es (k − 1)} + K i 4 I es (k ) (33)

where Kp4 and Ki4 are the proportional and integral gains of the voltage controller.
 New topology for management of bi-directional power flow 227

The output of the controller Vcb(k) at ksh instant is compared with fixed frequency (fsb)
saw-tooth carrier waveform and inverted saw-tooth carrier wave to get the control signals
for S7 and S8 switches. When reference battery current ib* is more than zero then gating
signal is given to switch S7 and if ib* is less than zero then gating signal is given to S8.

5 MATLAB-based modelling

The proposed configuration is designed and simulated in MATLAB as its developed

model is shown in Figure 6. It consists of a model of a bidirectional AC-DC converter
and third leg interfaced with an inductor to reduced ripple current. This AC-DC converter
is designed for a power of 5 kW. The linear and non-linear loads are connected at PCC to
demonstrate the vehicle integration effect on the grid. The control algorithm is also
modelled in MATLAB/SIMULINK. The detailed parameters of bidirectional converter
are given in Appendices A, B and Table 1.

Figure 6 MATLAB SIMULINK model of proposed configuration (see online version

for colours)

6 Control of proposed system for power quality improvement at PCC

The proposed system is modified to demonstrate control of PCC voltage or PFC and load
compensation by the VSC as shown in Figure 4(a). The linear and non-linear loads are
considered at the PCC. As there are several linear/non-linear loads which are connected
in the distribution system such as computers, modern electrical products, small rating
variable speed drives and fluorescent lamps. These result in poor power quality
228 A.K. Verma et al.

(harmonics, excessive neutral current) at the AC mains. To demonstrate the control of

PCC voltage with load compensation, the proposed system of Figure 1 is slightly
modified in terms of control as shown in Figure 4. The P-Q theory-based control
algorithm (Khadkikar et al., 2009) as shown in Figure 7 is used to demonstrate the
control of PCC voltage with reactive power compensation and harmonics elimination.

Figure 7 Control algorithm for ZVR or PFC using reactive power compensation

6.1 Control of PCC voltage

There is a voltage drop at the PCC voltage with other connected loads and this voltage
drop occurs due to the source impedance Zs. In order to maintain constant voltage at PCC,
the required reactive power is supplied by VSC in order to achieve ZVR.
By using equation (23) the reference grid current is* (k ) or the direct axis (active
power component) current of VSC is expressed as,
*
isp (k ) = I sm
*
(k ) * u p (34)
*
The PCC voltage error between amplitude of PCC voltage (Vsamp) and its reference (Vsm )
is fed to a PI voltage controller. The output of PCC voltage PI controller is reactive
power component of grid current. It is estimated as follows,
The amplitude of the terminal voltage (Vsamp) is calculated as,

Vsamp = ( v 2p + vq2 )
12
(35)

where vp = Vmpcc * up and vq = Vmpcc * uq and uq = √ (1 – u 2p ).

 New topology for management of bi-directional power flow 229

The PCC voltage is regulated by using a PI voltage controller and the quadrature axis
reactive current component current is expressed as,
I qr (k ) = I qr (k − 1) + K pq {vte( k ) − vte( k −1) } + K iq ( vte( k ) ) (36)

where vte(k) is vte( k ) = Vsm

*
(k ) − Vsamp (k ) which is a voltage error between reference (V*sm)
and sensed (Vsamp) PCC voltage at kth sampling instant. Kpq and Kiq are the gains of the
PCC voltage PI controller.
The reference quadrature axis reactive component of grid current is given as,
isq = I qr (k ) * uq (37)

The reference grid current of VSC is expressed as,

is*1 = isq (k ) + isp
*
(k ) (38)

The current error Ie(k) is calculated from this reference grid current is*1 (k ) and sensed
grid current is(k) as,
I e (k ) = is*1 (k ) − is (k ) (39)

By using equation (26), a control signal Vc(k) is estimated and is inverted by 1,800 which
gives {–Vc(k)}. By comparing both these signals with triangular carrier wave, four PWM
gating signals are generated for VSC using unipolar switching of VSC (Mohan et al.,
2009). These four signals are used to control four solid state switches, S1 – S4.

7 Results and discussion

The proposed converter configuration for bi-directional power flow between EV or

PHEV and grid, is used to control PCC voltage and load compensation by using the VSC
of the system. The proposed system is modelled in MATLAB/SIMULINK and a detailed
simulation is carried out using the developed MATLAB model. The performance of the
proposed system is shown in Figures 8–11. Performance of the proposed system is
depicted in terms of DC bus voltages (Vdc), battery voltage (Vb), battery current (ib), grid
voltage (vs), grid current (is), load currents (iL), VSC current (ic), ripple current (irip),
active power (P), reactive power (Q) and PCC voltage (Vt). Following observations are
made based on these results.

7.1 Performance of proposed system for bidirectional power flow

Figure 8 shows the charging and discharging performance of proposed configuration. In
these results, Vdc is 400 V DC. Vb is the battery voltage, the battery is charged in buck
mode and its voltage is maximum for a fully charged battery. In boost mode, the battery
is discharged and its voltage is minimum in case of fully discharged condition. The ib is
the battery current. The positive direction of this current ib indicates the charging action
of battery and negative direction of battery current ib indicates discharging of the battery.
vs and is are the PCC voltage and grid current respectively. Both PCC voltage (vs) and
grid current (is) are in phase with each other up to 1.1 s, which shows the unity power
factor operation of the proposed configuration. Moreover, after 1.1 s, the converter
230 A.K. Verma et al.

configuration is operating in boost mode thus discharging of the battery takes place and
the grid current is 180° out of phase with PCC voltage, which indicates that the power is
flowing back to the grid. irip is the ripple current in DC link and the value of this ripple
current is very less.

Figure 8 Charging and discharging of the proposed configuration (see online version for colours)

7.2 Performance of proposed system for power quality improvement at PCC

Figure 9 shows PFC of other connected loads at PCC by proposed converter system. The
control of VSC in the proposed system is modified to improve power quality (PQ) and to
demonstrate the control of PCC voltage and load compensation by the proposed converter
system. Figure 9 shows that the PF at the grid side is maintained at unity while charging
as well as discharging of the EV or PHEV even when an extra load is connected at PCC.
Figure 9 shows that PCC voltage and grid current are in phase with each other while
charging and 180° out of phase while discharging hence maintaining unity power factor
(UPF). Load current (iL) and compensation current (iC) are shown where Vt shows the
PCC voltage with its reference value which clearly shows the drop in PCC voltage at
PCC. At 0.45 s, the system is switched to boost mode here DC link voltage remains
constant and battery current ib becomes negative and ripple current irip is maintained
minimum.
 New topology for management of bi-directional power flow 231

Figure 9 PFC using load reactive power compensation (see online version for colours)

Figure 10 demonstrates the control of PCC voltage using proposed converter

configuration. Because of source impedance (Zs) there is voltage drop at the PCC, the
control of VSC compensates this voltage drop and it regulates PCC voltage (Vt) almost
constant. With the reference value of PCC voltage of 325 V as shown in Figure 10 and
required reactive power is supplied by the VSC, as shown by compensation current (ic).
During control of PCC voltage, the grid current (iS) are leading from PCC voltage (vs).
The DC link voltage remains constant while the battery current ib changes its direction
from buck mode to boost mode. After 0.45 s, the battery is in discharging mode and the
active power P is feedback to grid. The THD and harmonic spectra of the grid current
and load current while charging and discharging are shown in Figures 11(a)–11(c). The
THD of the grid current while charging and discharging and THD of non-linear load
current are 2.93% 3.47% and 50.88% respectively. The THD of the grid current is
232 A.K. Verma et al.

observed less then 5% which are well within the limit of IEEE-519 standard (Moses
et al., 2010; IEEE Std. 519).

Figure 10 Control of PCC voltage using reactive power compensation (see online version
for colours)

Figure 11 (a) Waveform and harmonic spectrum of grid current during discharging of the
proposed configuration (b) Waveform and harmonic spectrum of grid current during
charging of the proposed configuration (c) Waveform and harmonic spectrum of load
current (see online version for colours)

(a)
 New topology for management of bi-directional power flow 233

Figure 11 (a) Waveform and harmonic spectrum of grid current during discharging of the
proposed configuration (b) Waveform and harmonic spectrum of grid current during
charging of the proposed configuration (c) Waveform and harmonic spectrum of load
current (continued) (see online version for colours)

(b)

(c)

8 Conclusions

The proposed converter configuration has delivered the grid current to and from the
grid at unity power factor and at very low current harmonics. By using the ripple
compensation circuit in the single phase VSC, the size of the DC link capacitor has been
reduced to one tenth (1 mF to 100 µF). The proposed configuration with modified control
has improved power quality of the system and it has demonstrated load compensation and
control PCC voltage. It has further compensated the load and maintained unity power
factor at grid, thus improving the power quality of the system. The THD of grid current in
the charging and discharging modes are well within the limit of an IEEE-519 standard.

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Appendix

A Parameters for PWM AC-DC converter

Rating of VSC is 5,000 W, 230 V, 50 Hz, fs = 10 kHz, Li = 1.5 mH, Cdc = 0.1 mF,
Kiv = 0.2, kpv = 0.57, Ki2 = 0.02, kp1 = 1.85, Ki2 = 0.02, kp2 = 1, Ki3 = 1, kp3 = 2.85.

B Parameters for bidirectional DC-DC buck boost converter

Rating of bi-directional buck-boost converter is 5,000 W, fsb = 50 kHz, L0 = 2.09 mH, for
buck mode, Ki4 = 1.2, kp4 = 0.01, and for boost mode, Ki5 = 0.35, kp5 = 0.09.