Abstract

This paper proposes a novel balancing approach for an electric vehicle bipolar dc charging station at the megawatt level, enabled by a grid-tied neutral-point-clamped converter. The study uses the presence of an energy storage stage with access to both of the dc buses to perform the complementary balance. It proposes a generic balancing structure that can achieve balance regardless the kind of energy storage system (ESS) employed. This is aiming to reduce the hardware requirements of the system and maximize the usage of the ESS, whose main function is to perform the energy management related tasks. To meet this purpose, a three-level dc-dc interface is employed, allowing to compensate the dc currents with a single ESS. Furthermore, in order to prevent the appearance of even-order harmonics in the input current during asymmetrical operation, an alternative switching sequence for the central converter is proposed. Results indicate that, without altering dramatically the charging process of the ESS, it is possible to cover the whole load scenario without the need of a balancing circuit. This allows the use of off-the-shelf products both for the rectifier and the fast chargers. In this paper, simulation and experimental results are presented to validate the proposed balancing strategy.