Ultra-fast DC-charge infrastructures for EV-mobility and future smart grids

Nowadays Power Electronics (PE) is entering more and more in technology which traditionally belongs to different engineering disciplines. E-mobility is one of these. Power Electronics in fact imposes itself as an emerging technology to enhance sustainable mobility, addressing all the engineering aspects starting from energy distribution for charging purposes until energy transformation on board of the traction related vehicles. This paper in particular focuses on newly developed PE infrastructure technologies enabling fast battery charging processes. Depending on the battery and vehicle type, a recharge sufficient for a travel range of more than 100km in less than 10 min is readily achievable. As battery technologies continuously advance, recharging will become available with the speed and simplicity of a today's fuel stop. Two PE converter architectures for recharging infrastructure applications will be presented and discussed based on both low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) isolation requirements. Technical evaluation of the two different technologies will be addressed and presented, including a pro- and contra analysis. The impact on the grid is studied by means of simulation with the assumption of a dc fast charging station placed in a rural area in Sweden.