Design and Analysis of On-Campus Hybrid Charging Station for Electric Vehicles

As it is ascertained that in coming few years Electric Vehicles (EVs) are going to dominate the auto mobile industry. But there are certain issues that encounters to make these vehicles impossible to settle apart. One of these issues is EVs charging infrastructure, as the EV market cannot be establi

Project Title

Design and Analysis of On-Campus Hybrid Charging Station for Electric Vehicles

Project Area of Specialization

Electrical/Electronic Engineering

Project Summary

As it is ascertained that in coming few years Electric Vehicles (EVs) are going to dominate the auto mobile industry. But there are certain issues that encounters to make these vehicles impossible to settle apart. One of these issues is EVs charging infrastructure, as the EV market cannot be established eloquently until the EVs are not able to move longer distances. This issue can be resolved by establishing some strategies that fulfil our requirements without disturbing out existing electric power distribution network. In this final year project (FYP), we have made a scheme that will allow us to get our EV’s charged in a hybrid (grid, solar, and battery backup) manner. This hybrid EV charging station will work on solar, grid, and in case of emergency when both sources are unavailable, it will use backup batteries as a last resort to charge the EV (which is the case when there is a load shedding at nighttime and still customer is waiting to charge). The targeted customers of this charging station are university campuses, hospitals, shopping malls, and public parks, etc. A small-scale protype will be developed for demonstration purposes. The main part of the charging station is its control and protection unit. The control unit will check the availability of the sources and will decide among the three available sources based upon its per unit (kWh) cost. The protection unit will provide suitable protection against any kind of fault or abnormal operating conditions and thus assuring the safety of the valuable assets. In this project, the impact of the charging station on the local distribution system and transformer will be studied also on simulation platform (MATLAB/Simulink).

Project Objectives

The main objective of this FYP is to provide cost effective, easy to use and practically viable solution for the development and adopting electric vehicles as alternative to the conventional fossil fuel-based vehicles thus, coping the dangers associated with the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission. Although, the target installation point of this FYP protype is COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad campus vehicles parking. However, this approach can be adopted in many more locations ranging from university campuses, shopping malls, public parks, and even to highways and motorways service areas. With the passage of time, many vehicles manufacturer now moving towards electric vehicles either they are battery electric vehicles (BEVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Based on the afore-mentioned research gaps in EV charging technology, this research will be focused at designing of a charging station with underlisted properties.

1. Hybrid Charging Station (solar, grid/WAPDA, batteries)
2. Rapid Charging
3. Cost Effective (as compared to imported EV charging station)
4. Energy Management
5. Net Metering
6. Easy to Use (software interface)

Project Implementation Method

In this FYP, we are going to implement our idea of EV charging station on software platform (MATLAB/Simulink) for protection and control purposes and analysing the impact of this EV station on the distribution network (campus power network). A small-scale hardware prototype also will be built. The specifications of the prototype are forthcoming section under the technical details. The block diagram of the project given below in Figure 1 elaborates the implantation model. Three sources (solar, grid, and backup batteries) are connected to the control and protection unit. The control unit will decide the source priority based upon minimum per unit (kWh) cost and priority of charging as given in Figure 2 below. Conventional protection schemes will be implemented for the secure operation of the station to withstand any fault or abnormal operating condition. The connection of control and protection with batteries is bi-directional showing that it will be charged and can be discharged whenever needed. All the related information regarding user account, date and time, kWh consumed, time for charging to be completed, and the total cost of vehicle charging will be displayed on the LCD (as show in Figure 1) and will be communicated with user at station or away through app. The output of the charging station will be DC with 12-36 V and 10 A to charge a battery (EV) of maximum 6000 Wh, and 50 Ah. Optionally, we can also multiport system for charging more than one vehicle at a time.

Figure 1. Block diagram of the project.

Figure 2. The logic implemented inside control and protection unit for decision regarding the source selection based-upon least per unit (kWh) cost and priority.

Benefits of the Project

This project will help university campuses and other targeted locations mentioned earlier to help adopt EVs as alternate to the conventional fossil fuel-based vehicles due to environmental and economic benefits.  Several people do not buy EVs today due to the unavailability of charging infrastructure at their workplace and issue of slow charging in home (domestic sockets). The global trend of EVs adaptation is increasing day-by-day and hence, we are trying to explore this area and attract some sponsors for large-scale implementation of this model throughout the country to attain the goal of cleaner energy. The amount spent on the charging stations installations can be reversed in less time when also utilizes/process the net metering procedure for the utilization of the solar energy during daytime when there is no customer/vehicle. Besides this, there will be several other benefits from this project/FYP listed below:

1. The new technology of hybrid charging station for EV will help copping with the environmental challenges.
2. As we are making it a DC fast charger EVs, it will rapidly charge, and time will be saved.
3. As this charging station will be built in Pakistan it will be far more cost effective, as compared to imported EV Charging Station.
4. We plan to do energy management, as it will help us to operate efficiently without disturbing other equipment attached to the busbar and substation.
5. It will have an easy-to-use software interface, so that a lay man may operate it without any problem.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

We have completed both simulation and prototype of our project. In prototype we use three inputs solar, main grid line and battery as a backup. Battery use only when both main grid line and solar input are not available. We use bridge rectifier to convert AC input to DC. Boost converter is used at the output to boost the DC voltage to a required value so that we can charge multiple  EV’s battery in parrarell. There are one DC output port of our charging station. we charge maximum of 600WH EV battery. We calculate the charging time of battery that how much time charger takes to charge a (12v, 50AH) battery. Vehicle battery takes 4 hours for fully charge.

Charging station specification:

Input

AC 230V, 0.5A 50HZ

Solar 18 V, 3.3A (maximum)

Battery 12V,20Ah

Output: DC

12V, 10A

24V,10A

36V, 10A

Maximum Vehicle battery limit:

600WH , 50AH

Ardunio specification;

Relays specification:

• 4,000 V optical isolation, input to output
• 60 VDC, 5 Amp, DC Control
• Zero voltage turn-on
• Zero-current turn-off
• Turn-on time: 0.5 cycle maximum
• Turn-off time: 0.5 cycle maximum
• Operating temperature: –40 °C to 100 °C

MICROCONTROLLER

OPERATING VOLTAGE

INPUT VOLTAGE (RECOMMENDED)

INPUT VOLTAGE (LIMIT)

DIGITAL I/O PINS

ANALOG INPUT PINS

DC CURRENT FOR 3.3V PIN

FLASH MEMORY

CLOCK SPEED

WEIGHT

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Energy

Other Industries

Transportation

Core Technology

Clean Tech

Other Technologies

Others

Sustainable Development Goals

Affordable and Clean Energy, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Climate Action

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com