A distributed wireless testbed for plug-in hybrid electric vehicle control algorithms

There is a desire within the scientific community to use the inherent storage capabilities of plug-in hybrid electric vehicle batteries to enable demand-side management in power systems, increasing the usability of variable generation such as wind and solar power. The potential advantages of increased grid control must be tempered against the harmful effects of charge/discharge cycles on car battery health as well as user constraints on maximum allowable charge time. This paper reviews past research on communication and control architectures for PHEV charging and proposes a novel testbed to allow physical testing of several of the proposed schemes.