A Dual Purpose Triangular Neural Network Based Module for Monitoring and Protection in Bi-Directional Off-Board Level-3 Charging of EV/PHEV

Understanding the need for improvement in monitoring and protection in high performance charging technology for a growing demand of EVs/PHEVs, this research manuscript presents a part of an ongoing project and proposes a novel low cost dual purpose triangular neural network based module for power quality monitoring and protection (M&P) and elicits its performance in times of abnormalities or malfunction in a high performance off-board level 3 bi-directional charger for electric vehicles. Firstly, design and implementation of the low cost dual purpose triangular neural network based device for monitoring the power quality and hence, protecting the grid has been explained and its performance has been presented through numerical investigations. Going a step further, the device has also been experimentally tested using an in-house electric vehicle containing a commercially available battery charger and the measured results are analyzed. Secondly, a high-performance vector-controlled bi-directional off-board level-3 charger for faster and efficient charging has been developed and investigations have been performed on the healthy charger to analyze its performance. The primary aim of developing this charger was to elicit the usage and performance of the previously developed M&P device to protect the grid in case of some typical charger malfunction problem in such a charger, which is not detectable by conventional low cost sensors employed with such chargers. Once the module detects any abnormalities in the charger´s operation, information gathered can be used to tune the controller in the charger to obtain a constant improved performance of the charger or the power transfer can be terminated.