Grid side regulation of wireless power charging of plug-in electric vehicles

Conductive charging of plug-in and battery electric vehicles (PEV´s) is now well established and becoming more pervasive in the market. Conductive charger regulation of vehicle regenerative energy storage system (RESS), or battery pack charge rate is controlled by the dedicated on-board-charger (OBC) in coordination with the vehicles battery management system (BMS). Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) charging of PEV´s is a relatively new and emerging technology that will not benefit from standardization work until 2014 or later. As such, various approaches are currently underway to manage the power flow from the grid-tied high frequency power inverter to the vehicle RESS. WPT regulation approaches can be secondary side only, primary side only or a combination of both. In this paper Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) envisions a system that is fast charge compatible and that minimizes the vehicle on board complexity by placing the burden of power regulation on the grid side converter. This paper summarizes the ORNL approach and experimental lessons learned at the National Transportation Research Center WPT laboratory¹.