Evaluation of PV-based Buck-Boost and SEPIC Converters for EV Charging Applications

Abstract

In recent decades, environmental issues have become an area of greatest concern due to changes in global climate conditions. The transportation sector is a major contributor to carbon dioxide emissions, accounting for more than 22.9% of total carbon dioxide emissions. At present, most vehicles run on gasoline/diesel as fuel which is unsustainable and unviable as fossil fuels produce carbon emissions and fuel costs are rising. To address these issues, electric vehicles (EVs) offer an attractive solution as alternative to internal combustion engine vehicles that use electricity as an energy source. It is logical to use renewable energy to charge vehicles, which makes renewable energy an end-to-end clean energy source. In electric vehicles, energy conversion plays an important role. In the energy conversion process, alternating current (AC) can be converted to direct current (DC), or direct current can be converted to alternating current. In EV fast charging applications, DC-to-DC conversion is used, which requires DC-to-DC converters. In this paper, a detailed evaluation of the Buck-Boost and Single-Ended Primary Inductance Converters (SEPIC) with PV as input is analyzed for EV charging applications to make it end-to-end clean energy. For this purpose, a 5-by-5 PV system with a Buck-Boost, SEPIC converters with particle swarm optimization technique is considered, which is simulated in a MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. The simulation results showed that the ripples in output are minimal in SEPIC which supports the smooth and efficient charging of EV battery.