Research Projects

The transport sector is increasingly focusing on electric vehicles (EVs) due to the significant environmental concerns associated with fossil fuel use. India, one of the largest car markets globally, is moving towards EVs due to its growing demand. However, developing a proper EV charging infrastructure is a primary area of research. EV charging stations have negative impacts on the existing power system, such as poor line current quality, poor power factor (PF), reduced distribution transformer lifetime, and cost and battery lifetime. To address these issues, this project proposes a multi-pulse converter-based high power off-board charging system for electric bus applications. The proposed system will achieve power quality as per IEEE-519 standards, ensuring almost unity PF without using power factor correction (PFC) and active or passive filter networks. The system will be compact, robust, and cost-effective, as it converts the 3-phase grid supply into a multiphase power supply through a line-frequency multi-winding transformer (MWT). To verify performance parameters, an actual high power off-board charging system will be developed in compliance with SAE standards, with a power level of 400 kW with an 800 V battery bank for simulation. The experimental prototype will be tested with an actual 480V lithium-ion battery pack with a power level of 10 kW, considering the limitations of the existing institute laboratory.