Buck-Boost Converter as Power Factor Correction
Controller for Plug-In Electric Vehicles and Battery
Charging Application
Chirag P. Mehta
School Of Electrical Engineering,
VIT University,
Chennai, India
chirag.pradipmehta2014@vit.ac.in
Abstract — This paper discusses the working of buck-boost
converter as power factor correction controller applicable for
battery charging in electric vehicles application. This topology will
work in buck mode and boost mode of operation reliant on the
rectified voltage at input side and battery voltage at load side. This
paper presents an informal and effective line frequency current
shaping control arrangement used for achieving power factor
nearer to unity. It also satisfies the harmonic compliance of source
current in accordance to the IEEE519 recommendations. This
objective is achieved by active power factor control circuit using
continuous conduction mode (CCM) of buck-boost converter
implementing adaptable duty cycle control scheme. The control is
very simple and gives good performance. The performance of the
control scheme is simulated for both open-loop and closed-loop
control in Matlab/Simulink environment.
Keywords— Buck-Boost Converter topology, Proportional-
Integral controller (PI), total harmonic distortion (THD), Power
factor correction (PFC), Pulse width modulation(PWM),
Continuous conduction mode(CCM)
I. INTRODUCTION
Science, the energy conservation is the one of the important
issue; also the fuel cost getting increased day by day due to
reducing the availability of fuel on earth and also pollution ratio
increasing on daily bases. So, researchers are providing
alternative way to protect the environment by employing the
battery fed electric vehicle [1].
In battery fed electric vehicle the battery should be charge
and discharge precisely to improve the life as well as
productivity of battery. To achieve this conventional Buck-
Boost converter is used in CCM to charge and discharge the
battery [2-4]. This buck-boost converter is working on dc
supply for that purpose we have to convert the ac supply into dc
supply by diode bridge rectifier and while doing this more
distortion occurred at the ac input side of supply current and
power factor will get poor [5].
To improve, the active power factor correction controller is
being introduce is called line frequency current shaping control
scheme. In that both constant voltage and constant current
control scheme applied to improve the charging reliability of
battery as well as power factor near to unity [6]. That can sense
the output voltage of buck-boost converter and rectified current
of the buck-boost converter and given to PI controller to create
978-1-5090-0128-6/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
Prof. Balamurugan P.
School Of Electrical Engineering,
VIT University,
Chennai, India
balamurugan.p@vit.ac.in
PWM pulse with adjustable duty cycle and this pulses given to
switch to make supply current sinusoidal for getting unity
power factor [7-9].
Main advantage of this topology is simple and it can use
for high power application.
II. IMPORTANCE AND NEED OF POWER
FACTOR CORRECTION
In ac circuit, power factor means the ratio of real power
flowing through load, to apparent power in the circuit. Real
power is the capacity of the circuit for performing the work in
a particular time. Apparent power is the product of voltage and
current of the circuit.
Now a day’s power factor is one of the essential parameter
that every distribution sectors has to look into it. Power factor
at load side should be maintained near to unity to improve the
efficiency of transmission line and for that in industries they are
providing capacitor or any power factor correction panel to
maintain power factor near to unity. If power factor will
diminish beyond certain limits additional cost has to pay by
commercial consumer because the active power consumed by
consumer will increase more.
III. FUNDAMENTAL BATTERY CHARGING
CIRCUIT
Fig. 1 Fundamental battery charging circuit diagram
The basic circuit diagram of the battery charger from AC
supply is shown in fig1. The ac voltage is applied to diode
bridge rectifier for ac to dc conversion. The existence of ripples
in dc voltage / current causes heating of batteries during
charging. An L-C filter is used to filter the ripples and to
smoother the dc voltage. The presence of capacitor at the
rectifier output creates distortion in the source current and
hence the problems associated with it. Power factor, source
current / voltage distortion are the main factors that need
attention. Poor power factor at the source side results in
increased system losses and leads to poor performance.
IV. FUNDAMENTAL BATTERY CHARGING
CIRCUIT WITH BUCK-BOOST CONVERTER
Fig. 2 Fundamental battery charging with buck-boost converter circuit
The conventional buck-boost converter is introduced after
rectifier and before load battery as shown in Fig. 2. The main
purpose of introduce converter to make battery charging
accurately as well as to reduce THD losses at the supply current
side. Because of decreasing THD the power factor will get
improved as per the relationship of %THD and power factor
given below.
cos ∅ = . . = (1)
A. Design Parameter of converter
In this section, the proposed buck-boost PFC converter is
designed with all circuit parameter.
The output from rectifier (Vin)
= 2 ∗ √2 ∗ (2)
Vrms = AC supply voltage from mains
The dc voltage conversion ratio of the buck-boost PFC
converter can be represented as
=− (3)
Vdc=Battery voltage
D= Duty cycle
The critical of the inductor Lcric design is under the condition
that buck-boost converter operates in continuous conduction
mode (CCM), which can be expressed as
= (4)
/ of error and gives minimal value of the error signal current
; R= Output resistance
fs/w = Switching frequency
The critical value of output capacitor is,
= (5)
/ rectified supply voltage to make current in phase with voltage
Therefore, the critical inductor and capacitor of the proposed
converter can be designed according to equation (4) and (5)
where the inductance of inductor and output capacitance should
be chosen higher than the critical value.
V. PFC WITH BATTERY CHARGER
CONTRLLER CIRCUIT
Fig. 3 Circuit of PFC charge controller
As shown in fig 3 that first ac supply is given to a single
bridge diode rectifier that converts ac into dc. That dc output
given to buck-boost converter and battery is linked at the load
side. The output voltage of battery and input current of rectifier
is sensing and given to PFC controller and output of PFC
controller pulses given to switch to control the duty cycle and
output voltage of converter with power factor correction at
input AC side.
VI. POWER FACTOR CORRECTION CONTROL
SCHEME
Fig. 4 Block diagram of buck-boost PFC converter control
The block diagram of line frequency current shaping control
arrangement for power factor correction is presented in Fig. 4.
This controller consist of two modes of control are voltage
control mode and current mode control mode to make the input
power factor near to unity as well as to charge battery accurately
for improving performance and life cycle of battery.
A. Voltage controller
Voltage controller is operates as outer loop of PFC controller
as shown in Fig. 4. The battery voltage (Vdc) comparing with
desire reference value of voltage (Vdc*) and that produces error
signal and that error signal is providing to PI controller where P
accounts for present value of error and I accounts for past value
reference (Iin*).
B. Current controller
In inner loop current control has the double the frequency
(100Hz) of supply and designed such a way that it can track the
waveform. As shown in Fig.4 comparing the current reference
signal (Iin*) generated by outer loop of voltage control with the
rectified output current (Iin) of rectifier the output signal given
to current PI controller. This controller will minimize the error
and produces a signal and applied to PWM generator.
According to requirement of duty cycle PWM generator will
generate pulses for the switch of proposed converter to make
power factor unity.
The plot of ac source voltage and current is shown in Fig. 6.
The source voltage is a pure sinusoidal where as the source
current is discontinuous and it is spiky in nature near the supply
voltage peak. For better interpretation of the source current a
current scale of 1:20 is taken.

VII. SIMULATION RESULTS

The proposed buck-boost converter with battery charging
application and power factor correction circuit of open loop and
close loop is simulated with MATLAB Simulink. The block
diagram is represented in below Fig. 5 with R-load connected
in series with battery of 48V/100Ah capacity.
TABLE l. Design Specifications

S. No. Parameters Values

1. Supply Voltage 220 Vrms
2. Supply Frequency 50 Hz
3. Switching Frequency 20 kHz
Fig. 7 THD spectrum of supply current
4. Rated Power 300 W
9. Filter Inductor 5mH,15 amps The harmonic spectrum computed using Matlab/Simulink
Filter Capacitor 440 µF,220 volts for the source current is shown in Fig. 7. The distorted source
10. Output Capacitor 1500µF , 100 volts current has THD of 51.99% and a corresponding power factor
11. Converter Inductor 5mH, 20 amps of 0.8872 as derived below.
12. Nominal battery voltage 48 volts
13. Output Voltage 60 volts cos ∅ = . . = = 0.8872

B. Simulation of buck-boost converter as PFC in open-loop

A. Simulation of basic battery charging circuit
Fig. 5 Open loop without converter circuit configuration
The block diagram of open loop circuit with rectifier and
battery as load is represented in Fig. 5. The supply of 220 volts
applied to diode bridge rectifier and L-C filter used for the
purpose of reducing ripple from the output of rectifier. This L-
C will cause distortion in the supply current and that affects
more %THD losses and poor power factor.
As can be seen in below Fig., the proposed converter
operation has been simulated under two conditions, buck or
boost switching mode. The buck mode is operated when the
value of the rectified input voltage Vin is higher than battery
voltage Vdc and the boost mode is operated when the value of
the rectified input voltage Vin is lower than the battery voltage
Vdc. Finally, Fig. 9-13 represents that converter operated in
continuous conduction of buck mode the supply voltage Vs,
current Is, and current spectrum waveform of the proposed
converter.
Above cons of greater THD and lower power factor can be
overcome by introducing buck-boost converter in between
rectifier and load battery as represented in below Fig. 9.

Fig. 6 Supply Voltage and Supply Current

Fig. 8 Open loop with converter circuit configuration

Fig. 9 Supply voltage and current
As shown in Fig. 9 the supply current(Ratio 1:20) is
becoming in phase with supply voltage but still not perfectly in
phase some variations is available in the supply current side.
Fig. 10 Inductor current
Fig. 10 shows the inductor current is non-zero, so we can
infer that the buck-boost converter is working in continuous
conduction mode (CCM).
Fig. 11 THD spectrum of Supply Current
Total harmonic distortion spectrum analysis of supply
current and that is near to 32.36% presented in Fig. 11 and this
THD is lesser compare to previous 51.99% of open loop without
converter. Because of this the power factor will get improve. The
power factor will be
1
cos ∅ = . . = = 0.9517
1+
Fig. 12 Output current and voltage
The output voltage and current of the converter under open
loop condition is shown in Fig. 12 and the polarity of the voltage
and current is negative because it’s depends on the modes of
operation. Magnitude of average voltage is 60 volts and average
current is 5 amps.
Fig. 13 Battery State of charge, Current and Voltage
The status of battery condition is represented in Fig. 13. In
first graph the state of charge demonstrate that battery is
charging as well as during charging battery voltage gets
increased periodically and battery current is getting constant.
C. Simulation of buck-boost converter as PFC in closed-loop
The model for closed-loop implementation of buck-boost
PFC converter employing a PFC converter is shown in fig.14.
A simple proportional integral (PI) controller is employed for
regulating the voltage and current and hence to improve the
power factor and for THD minimization.
 Fig. 17 Inductor Current
Fig. 14 Close loop circuit configuration The CCM operation of buck-boost converter is ensured
under closed operation and the inductor current waveform as
shown in Fig17.

Fig. 15 Close loop PFC controller circuit configuration

Fig. 18 Supply Voltage and Current
The line frequency current shaping control scheme
employed to improve power factor nearer to unity is shown in The plot of source voltage (in actual scale) and source
Fig15. This controller consists of two control loops wiz. The current (elevated scale of 1:20) in Fig. 18 shows the
inner current control loop and the outer voltage control loop. By
performance implemented control strategy for source current
regulating voltage gain (Kpv and Kiv) and current gain (Kpc and
shaping. It is also clear that the source current is in phase with
Kic) of PI controller results in source current shaping to nearly
sinusoidal and in improving the power factor near to unity. The the source voltage achieving nearly unity power factor at the ac
controller action is generated in such a way it provides control side. The effect of harmonic distortion is also reduced greatly
voltage for the PWM generator which will generate PWM pulses which can further reduces the voltage distortion and losses in
for the buck-boost converter with appropriate duty cycle. The the system.
resulting source current drawn from the supply is now nearly
sinusoid and also having in-phase relationship with the source
voltage.

Fig. 16 Pulses generated by PWM generator Fig. 19 THD spectrum of supply current in close loop condition
 The spectrum of source current in Fig19 shows the THD in
source current is reduced to 6% which is far reduced when
compared to the basic charging circuit which accounted to
51.99%. The power factor corresponding to the distortion level
will be
1
cos ∅ = . . = = 0.9978
1+
Fig. 20 Output Current and Voltage
The output current and output voltage waveforms are
displayed in Fig. 20. The average output current is about
4A and average output voltage is about 55 volts.
Fig. 21 Battery State of charge, Current and Voltage
The same status of battery charge condition is represented in
Fig 21. In first graph the state of charge shows that battery is
charging continuously from 10% as well as during charging
battery voltage gets increased periodically and battery current is
getting constant.
VIII. CONCLUSION
The performance of Buck-boost converter as power factor
correction converter for battery charging applications is
demonstrated using Matlab/Simulink. A control strategy using
PI controller for wave shaping of the source current is
implemented which improved the source current wave shape
significantly. The effect of presence of filter capacitor at the
output of diode bridge rectifier on source current is reduced.
Also nearly unity power factor at the source side is attained by
the implemented control strategy. The source current distortion
and the THD is also reduced with higher degree of significance.
The system studied is applicable for high voltage and high
power application also gives more reliability to converter.
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