Intelligent Control of Wind-Assisted PHEVs Smart Charging Station

Abstract

Two technology opportunities, integration of renewable energy sources and the electrification of vehicles are being encouraged to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and pollution problems. Nevertheless, the huge increase of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) on roads will cause an additional load in demand, especially at rush hours, and therefore, threatens the stability of existing power grids. Considering PHEV stay for several hours in the workplace, (i.e., university), this may provide an inimitable framework to charge PHEV from wind in the workplace. This paper introduces the possibility of introducing intelligent control of wind power and battery storage units as supplementary power sources for future PHEV charging demands during rush hours. The operation of the proposed algorithm is based on the priority levels of PHEVs charging, and fluctuations in DC link voltage levels due to the variation in wind speed. The priorities of PHEVs charging are developed according to their power requirements, maximum rating of distribution transformer and park duration of PHEVs in the workplace during wind speed. Various non-isolated proportional–integral controllers and improved intelligent fuzzy control are used to keep a minimum critical DC link voltage to permit the power conditioning system to operate a charging station uninterruptedly, even at low wind speed. The improved intelligent fuzzy controller also contributes to minimizing the stress on the DC bus and ensures quality output power. The performance of the proposed charging station is verified for the real PHEV under real-world record of wind speed. All the energy sources, electric charging station and their controllers are designed in MATLAB/Simulink. Finally, the feasibility of proposed charging station is checked experimentally in the laboratory.