Experimental Analysis of an Optimal Distributed Energy Dispatching Scheme for an Electric Vehicle Drivetrain Controller

The powertrain solutions powered by distributed energy resources (DERs) are key drivers to achieve the benefits of the Electric Vehicle (EV) technologies. The real-time model of an EV power distribution system hybridizes the Solar Photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage resources is developed using MATLAB/Simulink and executed on real-time hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test setup. The hardware setup includes battery module, solar panels along with individual power electronics converters and local controller to drive the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM). The designed control strategy for power electronics converters and PMSM motor are implemented on TI C2000 TMS320F28335 ControlCARD through Simulink Real-time Coder. The developed powertrain controller constitutes of speed, max torque-per-ampere (MTPA), field weakening, and power factor control loops allowing extended EV’s speed and torque operational characteristics in comparison with state-of-the-art EV technologies. The performance analysis of the proposed controller-HIL testing is discussed for the benchmarked EV 2017 Nissan Leaf model through several operating scenarios. Additionally, the efficacy and performance assessment of the proposed energy management scheme is experimentally demonstrated using a campus golf cart powered by both 48V battery modules and a 200W solar panel. The energy savings and the CO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> emissions reduction for a benchmarked campus golf cart are also discussed. The observed outcomes verify the theoretical findings and satisfactory performance of the studied EV drive system.