Control and Implementation of a Solar‐Powered Off‐Board EV Charging System Using a Bidirectional Multilevel Converter for Power Quality Enhancement

ABSTRACT Electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in India is witnessing rapid expansion. However, it predominantly supports unidirectional power flow, thereby restricting functionalities such as vehicle‐to‐grid (V2G) integration. This work addresses critical technical challenges including power quality enhancement, voltage stability, and coordinated energy management commonly associated with bidirectional solar photovoltaic (PV)‐grid‐EV systems. To mitigate these limitations, a five‐level bidirectional multilevel converter (FL‐BDMC) is proposed, facilitating optimized power exchange among SPV, utility grid, and EV. The proposed converter supports both G2V and V2G modes, allowing two‐way power flow, lowering voltage stress, and improving system efficiency. A cascaded PI‐PR (proportional‐integral and proportional‐resonant) control method is developed for precise regulation of DC‐link voltage and grid current. Comparative analysis with existing five‐level converter topologies reveals that the FL‐BDMC achieves a high efficiency of 98.46% and a total harmonic distortion (THD) of 2.3%. Furthermore, thermal performance and switching losses are analyzed using PLECS software to assess operational reliability. The proposed system is confirmed through MATLAB/Simulink and real‐time hardware‐in‐the‐loop (HIL) OPAL‐RT (OP4520) platform under varying irradiance and bidirectional charging conditions. The results confirm the converter's effectiveness for medium‐power EV charging applications with enhanced energy efficiency and renewable energy compatibility.