Model Predictive Controlled Level-3 Reconfigurable Battery Charger for Future Electric Transportation

The offboard charger signifies a pivotal advancement in electric vehicle (EV) growth, facilitating fast charging while offering flexibility and scalability. Nonetheless, existing off-board chargers encounter various challenges related to scalability and design complexity, degrading their performance over a wide voltage range. This paper presents a modular and reconfigurable offboard EV charger for charging a wide output voltage range of EVs. It is controlled through a new distributed finite control set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) architecture. The proposed charger can operate in star and delta configurations, optimizing the charging process for low-voltage and next-generation high-voltage battery pack vehicles. A key benefit of the proposed charger and its controller is the wide operating voltage range with allowable voltage and current ripple. The performance of the proposed charger and its controller is evaluated through simulation studies in the MATLAB Simulink platform. The results demonstrate the unity power factor operation and ability to charge from a single-phase power supply without compromising power rating in the absence of a three-phase supply, making it an efficient and scalable solution for future EV charging infrastructure.