A G2V/V2G Off-Board Fast Charger for Charging
of Lithium-ion Based Electric Vehicles
Saran Chaurasiya
Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi,
New Delhi-110016, India
Saran.99chaurasiya@gmail.com
Abstract—This paper proposes a bidirectional three
phase off-board charging topology for charging of electric
vehicles (EVs). The proposed off-board EV charger has
innovative modes for the charging control of lithium-ion
battery with respect to SOC. All these modes are switched
on the basis of change in SOC. According to these modes,
the reference charging current is adjusted. The proposed
charging topology is composed of three phase AC-DC
converter and a bidirectional DC-DC converter, which
works as buck converter during G2V operation and it
works as a boost converter during V2G operation. The
AC-DC converter is controlled by comprehensive control
technique. Compared to the traditional charging control
technique, this topology controls the charging reference
according to maximum charging acceptance
characteristics of lithium-ion battery. The proposed
charging control is validated by MATLAB/Simulink,
operating through grid to vehicle including all charging
control modes for lithium-ion battery and vehicle to grid
control.
Keywords— Lithium-ion battery, CC-charging stage, CV-
charging stage, DC-DC converter, Power Quality, EV.
I. INTRODUCTION
Climate change, environment concerns and other related
issues related to increasing population have given rise one of
its interest towards energy storage based electric mobility
during recent years. The motive behind use of electric
mobility, is to reduce the use of hydrocarbon fuel for making
a reduction in Co2 and other hazardous pollutants emission,
which make a huge contribution to the climate change. The
wide-spread use of electric vehicles (EVs), is based on the
variety of energy storage for different purposes. Among all
these energy storage the most viable solution is a battery
energy storage. There are lot of variety of batteries available
for different applications with varying charging
characteristics. From all varieties of battery energy storage,
the mostly accepted solution is lithium-ion battery because of
its high cell voltage, high energy & power density, high
charge & discharge life with low exhaust emission [1]. In
modern transportation system, plug-in hybrid and battery
electric vehicles become attractive alternative. According to
new standards of micro-grids and smart homes, it is necessary
to adopt new control strategy [2], [3]. Some of these control
strategy have power quality issues and time required to make
an effective and safe charging of lithium-ion based EVs [4].
The charging of EVs are done by the use of on-board and off-
board chargers. In [5], both advantages and disadvantages of
charging of EVs via on-board and off-board are presented.
Taking into account, the EV charger requires AC to DC
This work was supported by Department of Science and Technology,
Govt. of India and ReNew Power, with Grant no. RP03128 and RP03461,
respectively.
978-1-7281-0653-3/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
Bhim Singh, Fellow, IEEE
Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi,
New Delhi-110016, India
bhimsinghiitd62@gmail.com
power conversion. In AC to DC power conversion the
required solutions are passive (12-pulse diode rectifier [6])
and active (Vienna, Swiss and NPC converters [7], [8]) power
conversion.
In this context, this paper proposes an off-board charging
scheme for fast and safe charging of battery electric vehicles.
Moreover, the scheme presented is simple and cost effective.
The charger has two stages- first stage is three phase AC-DC
power conversion stage and second is DC-DC power
conversion stage. The charging control is designed for
lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries. During discharging
operation mode, the stored energy is effectively utilized for
feeding back to local grid during peak hours and to make
earning from stored energy or use it effectively for home
lighting purposes. The steady state and dynamic performances
of the proposed off-board charging system including charging
control modes are verified using MATLAB/Simulink.
Simulated results have validated the control scheme. This
paper is organized as: section II presents detailed description
of all stages, section III describes about control algorithm,
section IV describes about designing parameters, section V
shows the simulation results and discussion and section VI
shows the conclusion.
II. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
The first power conversion stage is a three phase VSC
connected to the grid through interfacing inductors. It acts as
an active rectifier during forward power conversion stage and
it acts as an inverter during reverse power conversion stage. It
is followed by split DC link whose center point is neutral
connected. Moreover, the neutral point of DC link is
connected to DC-DC converter for bidirectional power
transfer. The DC-DC power conversion stage provides
bidirectional power flow capability [10]. The DC-DC
converter has four IGBT with second order LC filter, shown
in Fig.1. During forward power conversion stage, it works as
a buck converter and during reverse power conversion stage it
works as a boost converter. It has four modes during both
forward and reverse power conversion stage. The steady state
analysis of bidirectional DC-DC converter during both power
transfer mode is described here.
A. Forward Power Transfer Mode
Mode 1 (t < t < t ) : Mode 1 of forward power conversion
0 1
stage, switches M1 & M3 turn on and M2 & M4 are off. Switch
M3 works as synchronous rectifier and voltage across VCV1 is
Vdc/2. During this mode, the power is transferred from DC
link, inductor, load capacitor and the battery. The voltage as,
V dc
VL = − V b a tt (1)
2
iL ( t ) = iL ( t0 ) +
1  V dc 
− V b a tt  ( t − t 0 )
L  2 
Mode 2 (t < t < t ) : In mode 2, switches M2 & M3 are on and
1 2
act as a synchronous rectifiers and voltage across VCV1 is 0.
Switches M1 & M4 are not gated. During this mode, energy
synchronous rectifier. The steady state analysis of converter
for charging DC link is described as follows:
Mode 1 (t < t < t ) : In mode 1, switches M2 & M3 are gated
0 1

stored in the inductor is transferred to the load capacitor and and switches M2 & M4 act as a synchronous rectifier. During
the battery. The voltage across inductor VL and current iL this period, the battery is used for storing energy in the
inductor. Both DC link capacitors are discharging for
through inductor is given as,
transferring power to 3Φ grid. The voltage across inductor VL
V L = −V batt
(2) and current iL through inductor are given as,
1
i L ( t ) = i L ( t1 ) − (Vbatt ) ( t − t 0 ) V L = V batt
L (6)
1
iL (t ) = iL (t0 ) + (V batt ) ( t − t 0 )
L
Mode 2 (t < t < t ) : In mode 2, switches M1 & M3 are gated
1 2

and switches M2 & M4 act as a synchronous rectifier. During

this mode, the inductor stored energy and battery energy is
transferred to charge upper dc link capacitor. The voltage and
current expression for inductor is given as,
V dc
V L = V b a tt −
2 (7)
1  V dc 
i L ( t ) = i L ( t1 ) +  V b a tt −  ( t − t1 )
L  2 
Mode 3 (t < t < t ) : This mode is same as mode 1. During
2 3

mode 3, again inductor stores energy for the charging of

lower dc link capacitor. The voltage and current expression
for inductor is given as,
V L = V b att
(8)
1
iL ( t ) = iL ( t 2 ) + (V b a tt ) ( t − t 2 )
Fig. 1 Overall charging system representation L
Mode 4 (t < t < t ) : In this mode, switch M2 & M4 are gated
Mode 3 (t < t < t ) : In mode 3, switches M2 & M4 are on and 3 4
2 3
and M1 & M3 act as a synchronous rectifier. In this mode, the
M2 works as a synchronous rectifier and voltage across VCV2 energy stored in inductor mode 3 and battery stored energy is
is Vdc/2. Switches M1 & M4 are not gated. Now, the energy is used to charge lower dc link capacitor. The steady state
again transferred to the inductor, the load capacitor and the equations is described as,
battery. The voltage and current expressions for inductor are V dc
given as, V L = V b a tt −
2 (9)
V
V L = d c − V ba tt iL ( t ) = iL ( t3 ) +
1  V dc 
2 (3)  V b a tt −  (t − t3 )
L  2 
1  V dc  From, (6)-(9), the voltage gain for reverse power transfer is
iL ( t ) = iL (t 2 ) +  − V ba tt  ( t − t 2 )
L 2  obtained using volt-second balance principle for one
Mode 4 (t < t < t ) : This mode is same as mode 2. The switching period is,
3 4
V 2
voltage across inductor VL and current ݅௅ through inductor is G boost = dc = (10)
given as, V batt 1 − D
V L = −Vbatt
(4) III. CONTROL ALGORITHM
1
iL ( t ) = i L ( t 3 ) − (Vbatt ) (t − t3 ) The prime objective of this paper is to validate control
L algorithm for the charging of lithium-ion batteries along with
From, (1)-(4), the voltage gain is obtained using volt-second V2G operation. The control strategy in this section is divided
balance principle for one switching period as, under two sections: the G2V mode and V2G mode. The G2V
V b a tt D mode is further divided into three sub-sections: the pre-
G b u ck = = (5)
charging mode, the constant current charging mode and
V dc 2
constant voltage charging mode. Detailed explanations of
both two sections are presented here.
B. .Reverse Power Transfer Mode
In reverse power transfer mode, the converter acts as a A. G2V Mode
boost converter and it transfers power from battery to DC This mode has basically two modes of control namely grid
link. In this mode, PWM control is used to control only power factor control and DC-DC converter control. The grid
switches M2 & M3 and switches M2 & M4 act as a power factor is controlled using comprehensive control
technique [9], shown in Fig. 2. This technique is based on the d id
V d = R s id + L s − ω L s iq + V co n d . (14)
concept of vector control of AC motors. The principle of dt
vector control is not detailed here, only key findings are d iq
V q = R s iq + L s − ω L s id + V co n d .
discussed dt
In Fig. 2, the outer DC link voltage control loop is similar And expression for DC link voltage is given as,
to speed control loop, the direct axis and quadrature axis d V dc
voltage reference loops are used for the control of active and ilo ad + C = id c (15)
dt
reactive power control whereas in case of AC motor these are
After solving (14)-(15), the transfer function is given as,
used for the control of torque and flux.
id 1 iq 1 (16)
= & =
Vd Rs + sLs Vq Rs + sLs
From this the open loop transfer function is given as,
1  K  (17)
×  K pd + id 
R s + sL s  s 
After applying some manipulation in (4) such that pole and
zeros of transfer function cancel each other. From this the
value of ‘Kp’ and ‘KI’ is given as for both ‘d’ and ‘q’ axis
reference voltage generation,
L R (18)
K pd = K pq = s & K id = K iq = s
τs τs
Using these values of ‘Vd’ and ‘Vq’, converted into three
Fig. 2 Control diagram for AC-DC conversion. phase reference voltages and using sinusoidal PWM, gating
pulses are generated for VSC.
The control requires the reference value of DC link voltage The DC-DC converter are controlled using PWM control.
(Vdc ) and ‘q’ axis current reference (iq ) . The ‘ Vdc is set as
* * *
The reference signal for PWM generation is generated using
battery charging control technique. The charging control
*
650V and iq is set as 0, as VSC acts as a boost converter and algorithm is based on to meet fast and safe charging operation
also unity power factor at the grid side, has to be maintained. of lithium-ion and lithium polymer battery. It is shown in [4]
In Fig.2, the factor ‘K’ is the ratio of grid voltage space vector that at any value of initial SOC level, the cell voltage rises to
magnitude and DC link voltage magnitude. A proper a high value and it downs to its normal value with the rise in
estimation of value of ‘K’ during transient conditions gives 2-4% of SOC from its initial SOC value. So, during this
proper ‘d’ axis current reference. When the battery charging mode, if charging current is of high value than it makes a
current changes, it is noted that DC link capacitor current further rise in cell voltage and causes raise in cell
should be ideally be zero, to ensure that dc link voltage temperature, which causes damage of active material.
remains constant. The DC link voltage is maintained through Moreover, during discharging mode, the cell voltage should
Grid, so this control loop is expressed as, not go below its cut-off range. For making sure the prevention
*
(11) from overcharging, a pre-charging state is added for charging
I d ( k ) = I d ( k − 1) + K p {Vdce ( k ) − Vdce ( k − 1)} + K iVdce ( k )
the battery upto 2-4% of initial SOC level, as shown in
* *
Here, Vdce = Vdc − Vdc is the error of Vdc & Vdc . Now I q , the Fig.3(a). After that switching from pre-charging state to
constant current (CC) charging state is added. The control
reactive component is obtained from abc to dq transformation
flow-chart is shown in Fig.3(b). The CC charging mode
of grid current, this component is now compared to reference
provides charging at ‘C’ rate. When battery SOC reaches
value and controlled using PI controller, the control equation
around 88-90% level then switch to CV charging mode. For
is expressed as
CV charging of battery, there is a need to introduce inner
Vq ( k ) = Vq ( k − 1) + K pq {I qe ( k ) − I qe ( k − 1)} + K iq I de ( k ) (12)
current control loop to make sure that battery charging
* *
Here, I qe = I q − I q , the error between I q & I q . Moreover, current does not increase its ‘C’ rate current and maintains
battery terminal voltage constant. By making battery terminal
using abc to dq transformation, the active component of grid voltage constant, the battery charging current is reduced such
current is compared with reference components from (11), that it should follow hyperbolic path. The control loop for CV
and it is now controlled using PI control loop, it is expressed charging mode is shown in Fig.4. The outer PI control for
as, maintaining battery voltage at its maximum charging voltage
Vd (k ) = Vd (k − 1) + K pd {I de ( k ) − I de (k − 1)} + K id I de (k ) (13) is expressed as,
Here, I d e = I d* − I d , the error between I d* & I d . This *
I (k ) = I (k − 1) + K {V (k ) − V (k − 1)} + K V (k )
Batt . Batt . pb Batte Batte ib Batte
(19)
fast dynamic response can be achieved by the tuning of PI * *
Here, VBatte = VBatt − VBatt , is the error between VBatt & VBatt .
controller. After applying KVL at the input terminal of Fig.1 *
and the ‘d’ axis and ‘q’ axis voltage reference is given as, Now this I Batt . is compared with battery measured current
value and controlled using PI controller for maintaining very
*
slow changes in I Batt . . It can be expressed as,
 *
X ref ( k ) = K pr { I Batte ( k ) − I Batte ( k − 1)} + K ir I Batte ( k ) (20)
This
*
X ref signal is now used for PWM generation.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 3 Flow chart for the switching of (a) pre-charging stage, (b) CC-charging
stage.
Fig. 4 Control loop for CV stage.
B. V2G Mode
The control for V2G mode is again divided into two parts:
the DC-DC converter control and DC-AC converter control.
For control of dc-dc converter, there is a need of battery
discharging current reference. The reference is on the basis
that it is sum of loss component for maintaining DC link
voltage and active power component. For making this, the
reference battery discharge current is compared with actual
battery discharge current and controlled through PI
controller. The reference generated by PI controller is used
for PWM generation. This control action is expressed as,
*
Yref ( k ) = K prd { I Batte ( k ) − I Batte ( k − 1)} + K ird I Batte ( k ) (21)
From DC link voltage control loop, the ‘d’ axis reference
current is generated and it is again compared with ‘d’
axis component of grid current. This error is controlled
through PI controller and reference component of direct axis
voltage is generated. The controller tracks this active power
as,
*
Vd ( k ) = Vd ( k − 1) + K pc {I de ( k ) − I de ( k − 1)} + K ic I de ( k ) (22)
Similarly, reactive power component of grid current
reference is compared with actual component and controlled
using PI controller as,
*
Vq ( k ) = Vq ( k − 1) + K pc {I qe ( k ) − I qe ( k − 1)} + K ic I de ( k ) (23)
After transforming Vd* & Vq* into three phase voltage
reference, using sinusoidal PWM, gating pulses are generated.
IV. DESIGN OF PROPOSED SYSTEM
This section presents the design parameters of off-board
battery charging system with bidirectional power flow
capability. The off-board charger is designed for 25kW rating
with charging voltage is designed with 48-108V capability.
The minimum DC link voltage required for three phase
system is 650V. The expression for DC link capacitor
designed for second harmonic of the fundamental frequency
is given as [11],
Io
Cdc = = 4.65mF ( 4.8mF) (24)
2ωVdc
The interfacing inductor is designed for 10kHz switching
frequency, with ripple in fundamental supply current is 2%
[11].
3 (VDC * m) (25)
Ls = × = 6.5mH ( 7.0mH )
2 6a * fs * ΔI
The DC-DC converter is designed as a buck converter during
G2V mode of operation and its value is taken as 2mH with
switching frequency of 20kHz. The DC side filter is designed
as,
V di
VL = dc − Vbatt = L L = 58.7μ H (26)
2 DTs
As the value selected for inductor is for discontinuous
conduction mode. For continuous conduction mode, the
selected value is 10 times of value with DCM mode around
600 μ H . Battery specification for the testing of designed
charging system is shown in Appendix.
V.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The complete system parameters, which is used to control is
shown in Appendix. The system is simulated for a three phase
415V, 50Hz with DC link voltage is maintained as 650V for
both G2V & V2G mode of operation. The battery Ah capacity
is large, therefore it do not affect much on battery terminal
voltage during charging and discharging mode. The control
is verified here for both G2V and V2G mode of operation.
A. G2V Mode of Operation
In this work, an extra stage (Pre-charging stage) has been
added for the safe charging of lithium-ion battery. For making
sure that overall charging should be fast, another well-known
stage, the constant current (CC) stage has been added. The
‘C’ rate charging during CC stage is shown in simulation. The
starting of control for AC-DC converter is with the reference
of DC link is 650V and ‘q’ axis current reference is 0 for simulation results. Simulation results have shown the
making unity power factor. The current reference for both performance of charger under unity power operation and THD
pre-charging and constant current charging is according to of grid current is found below 5% in both G2V and
maximum charging acceptance of lithium-ion battery. With
this concept, the charging rate during pre-charging mode is
round ‘ C / 2 ’ and during constant current mode it is around
‘C’ rate charging for reducing total charging time.
Simulated results during pre-charging mode are shown in Fig.
5. During this mode, the battery initial SOC level is around
50% and battery charging current is 220A with this charging
current the power drawn from Grid is around 10.5kW and
reactive power is 0kVAR. The DC link voltage is maintained
around 650V. When battery SOC level reaches 5% above the
initial SOC level, switching of pre-charging mode to constant
current charging mode takes place. Fig. 6 shows the dynamics
of switching from pre to CC charging mode. During
switching from one mode to second mode, the DC link going
down to around 630V but it reaches 650V level within
250ms.
The steady state results in CC mode is shown in Fig.7. During
CC mode, the charging current is around 415A (according to Fig. 5 Performance during pre-charging stage.
‘C’ rate charging). With this charging current, the active
power drawn from grid is around 19.2kW and reactive power
is 0 in steady state mode. The SOC is rising from 5%
increment of its initial value to upto 89% of SOC level. At
89% SOC level, the switching of CC to constant voltage (CV)
charging mode takes place. If battery initial SOC level is
85%, then in that case, there is no need of switching from pre-
charging mode to constant current charging mode. Therefore,
in that case, there is only two modes: the pre-charging mode
and constant voltage charging mode. If initial SOC is 88%
then there is only CV charging mode in complete charging
process. Performance during CV mode, is shown in Fig. 8.
During CV charging mode, to make sure that battery voltage
should remain constant at its maximum charging voltage, the
battery current reference (inner current control loop) should
follow slowly decaying curve. Therefore in this mode, the
battery charging current decreases gradually and it makes
battery terminal voltage at its maximum charging voltage.
The DC link voltage maintained at 650V with this continuous
Fig. 6 Dynamics during change over from pre to CC charging stage
change in charging current.
B. V2G Mode of Operation
For V2G mode of operation, the active power is considered
around 9.7kW. With this active power consideration, the
battery discharging current is around 220A. This value is
considered as a reference discharging current and controlled
using a PI controller and it generates suitable reference
voltage for making the reverse operation of DC-DC
converter. During discharging mode, the DC link is
maintained at 650V level with
unity power factor operation. The corresponding simulation
performance is shown in Fig. 9. Fig.10 shows the grid current
THD during all three G2V modes of operation and V2G mode
of operation. From Fig. 10, it is shown that grid current THD
is below 5% according to IEEE 519-1992 standard.
V.CONCLUSION
The G2V and V2G operation of off-board bidirectional
charging system is explained in detail. The proposed charging
system has been specially designed for the charging of
lithium-ion and lithium polymer based EVs. The control for
the charging of lithium-ion battery has been validated through Fig. 7 Performance during CC charging stage.
 (c) (d)
Fig. 10 Harmonic spectra during (a)pre-charging mode during forward
power transfer, (b) CC-charging mode during forward power transfer, (c) CV
charging mode during forward power transfer, and (d) V2G power transfer
operation.

V2G mode of operation.can also be used to provide support

to grid during peak hours and make earnings from
discharging mode of operation. As the charger rating have
25kW/48-108V DC, so it can be used for the charging of both
e-rickshaw and electric four wheelers.

Fig. 8 Performance during CV charging stage. APPENDIX

Battery specifications: 48V, 420Ah lithium-ion battery.
Charger specifications: 25kW, interfacing inductance
=7.0mH, DC link capacitor=4.8mF, DC link voltage=650V,
battery side LC filter= 600 μ H , 200 μ F .

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